Eternity's Redemption
by Ringshadow
Summary: A new home system has been found, but the situation hasn't improved. Maybe it's time for a back to the basics approach. Infinity Series #6
1. Chapter 1

Eternity's Redemption

Chapter One: Endings

Slippy sighed, crouched on his heels, watching the pump shake and cavitate. He had been expecting this, but it was still a distressing thing to watch. It was just another thing to put on the list of things that were slowly going to hell on the Great Fox.

He shook his head and stood, looking across the room, where all the water filters were valved out with 'Spent' written on them in red marker. He'd taken the last one offline last week, not that it mattered. There wasn't enough water in the system to even put filters into use, let alone keep the whole system viable. He'd actually taken whole systems of fire suppression offline a month ago, not that it had helped much.

And, as if to drive the final dagger into his side, the lights flickered, dimmed for several seconds, then came back. The Great Fox's core was tapering off. They were down to fifty percent viability at best, and all the generators were down. Basically this meant that at idle, the ship was struggling to put power to all the systems. Yet, all this mechanical trouble stood second to the human factor of it all.

He sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets, leaving the maintenance room and kicking the door closed behind him. He had no idea what to do about any of this, and that didn't bode well. His father's company had built the ship, but he had lived in it, had memorized most of the design documents, had repaired it during the war, and he had no idea where to start in this mess.

"And?"

He looked up, and saw Peppy leaning on the wall, also in casual clothing. "Last pump on is having some serious cavitation, just this side of damage. I hate to say this, but I think I'm going to have to completely shut our water systems down."

"Fox was expecting that. The High Command still won't give us water, so do what you have to to keep this ship viable. His words."

"Now we're splitting hairs. If I let the system stagnate for any amount of time, it'll take days to bring it back up, let alone get drinking water out of it."

Peppy sighed and ducked his head, lacing his fingers across the back of his neck. "So what you're saying is, it's screwed either way. Shut it down, Slippy, at least then we don't have a water pump tearing itself apart."

"Will do. What did Fox say about the core?"

"Nothing. He isn't saying much these days. I think he's hurting."

Slippy opened his mouth to point out that Fox had basically stopped eating, but shut it without saying anything, going to a wall panel and bringing up the ship system controls, shutting down all water-related systems silently, then punching the wall next to the panel in frustration, not looking at Peppy when the older man pulled him back. "What the hell are we going to do?! I can't fix this!"

Peppy shook his head. "We'll think of something."

Fox sighed, looking over his shoulder at his docked ship then proceeding deeper into the hub station of New Lylat. It was amazing how the little things bothered you, even when you were forced into the position he was. To him, seeing his ship dark and silent sent a spike of pain through his chest. Crammed into the biggest bay the station had, the Great Fox looked crowded, trapped, bound. But being docked was the only way his crew could survive at this point.

Three months ago, Wolf had come to him and given him bad news: the kitchen was empty. Fox had already known that the water systems were low, so hearing that their resident chef was shafted just felt like icing on the cake. When he asked why Wolf hadn't requested resupply, Wolf had snorted and replied that he had, several times. Which was why Fox was hearing about it, the High Command was turning down all requests he had. The High Command wanted them to eat from the station galleys.

Alright, fine, Fox had said. The station is rationing, if they gave us anything they'd be taking food away from station personnel. Wolf had just shook his head, and Fox found out later why he had.

Waiting for the first round of crops to come about out of hydroponics, station supplies were strained, and that went for water too. There were no water treatment plants completed yet planetside. This meant that the High Command denied any and all provisions to the Great Fox itself. As far as they were concerned, the crew could walk to the nearest facilities.

Which is how Fox had ended up in the position he was.

He'd long since figured out how the station was laid out, and barely saw the corridors he walked through, eventually shouldering open a door and looking at the people gathered around a table there. "Sorry I'm late."

The High Command, the group of military personnel, scientists, and a few politicians that ran new Lylat, all looked up and stared. "I didn't think you were coming." Pepper replied slowly, looking at Fox. The young man wasn't in uniform, instead in belted jeans and a baggy hooded sweat shirt. More disconcerting was his face, which had visibly changed since the months beforehand, thin and sharp, eyes flat and dull.

"Yeah, well. I thought about blowing you guys off again but I figure there are better ways to let you know I'm pissed off." Fox came fully into the room, shoving his hands into the pockets of the sweat shirt. "Like coming and telling you about it."

"You're out of line, McCloud." Garis remarked. "Surely you can't expect us to change our entire schedule so you can have a tantrum."

"Screw you. Shut up." Fox replied flatly, and during the shocked silence, turned back to the rest of the High Command. "You know me. I'm pretty flexible, I don't issue ultimatums. So realize the position I must be in to issue one now."

"Fox, I don't know what…" Pepper started.

"That 'Shut up' went for you too, General." This got him another wave of shocked silence. "You've been refusing to resupply my crew, and my patience is out. You will give us food, and you will give us water. We are not your soldiers. We are mercenaries. You may not have money, but you have supplies."

"You really can't expect us to give you more food than the other crew of the station." Garis protested.

"You've heard my ultimatum."

"And if we don't?"

"Then I will find someone else to supply my crew. You have three hours to get me what I want."

"Fox, this isn't like you." Pepper finally said.

Fox turned his back and walked out, stopping in the doorway and looking over his shoulder. "Usually I've eaten within the last seventy-two hours." That said, he was gone.

"Oh, this is ridiculous. He's not being blocked at the galleys; he's got no reason to starve himself." Garis shook his head.

"Um… Sir?"

Those around the tables looked at the private that was standing by the wall, one of the many aides that ran errands for the command deck. "Yes, Lynx?" One of the politicians finally asked.

"Sir, I don't know how you haven't heard about this, everyone on board has been talking about it." The feline gnawed her lower lip. "He does go to the galley, he doesn't eat anything he takes. He gives it all to his girlfriend and the rest of his crew. He barely eats."

"That's completely ridiculous, they're getting rations too…"

"Yeah, but his girlfriend is breastfeeding sir and the rations don't account for it, so he gives his ration to her."

There was a long awkward silence, the group looking at each other.

"If we supply them we're giving them special treatment, which wouldn't be fair to anyone else on this station. It'd be taking food from everyone else to feed them."

"McCloud is going to let himself starve if we don't."

"That is his choice."

"This is stupid. They saved us. We owe them."

"They were paid, and can you honestly take food and water from the others on the station just to feed them?"

"How hard would it be to allow Fara Phoenix more rations? She IS an exception to the rules, she has a child barely out of infancy."

"That'd be easy but it isn't what he asked for."

"Good point. Do we assume he's asking for full resupply?"

"He's never done anything by halves before."

"So what do we do?"

"Look, we have other things to talk about. I suggest we discuss this at the end of the meeting, at that point maybe someone will have an idea."

Falco huffed, peering at Fox. "That was pretty drastic, even for you."

"Yeah, I guess so." Fox rubbed his stomach. "But I didn't have a better idea. Do you?"

"Hell, I'm proud of you boy." Falco laughed and moved, hugging Fox to his chest somewhat gingerly. "About time you stood up for yourself."

"Don't call me 'boy.'" Fox grumbled, feebly slugging Falco's stomach. "Get off."

"Yeah, yeah." Falco gave him a noogie then let go.

"I have to assume you have a plan." Wolf said, sitting on the kitchen counter. There was no food, no water, but everyone still gathered there automatically. "You wouldn't do this if you didn't have a plan."

"I sort of have a plan, but I have no idea if any of it will work." Fox sagged in the chair. "But at least it's something, and I should have done something ages ago."

"No, we should have the minute you started losing weight." Wolf replied, shaking his head. "You aren't the only person on the team, Fox."

"I keep telling him that."

Fox looked up and mustered a smile at Fara, who was in the doorway carrying Hope. "Hey, you."

"Hey, yourself." She replied, walking over and sitting next to him. "I heard about what you did, it's all over the station gossip chain."

"We are a hot topic, aren't we?" He sighed, reaching a hand out to stroke his daughter's hair and freezing when he realized that everyone was watching his shaking arm. "Oh, bite my ass ok?" He pouted and crossed his arms. "Getting all angsty over my state will not fix me!"

Everyone else in the kitchen was still sharing a silent headshake when Peppy came in, trailing Jesse. Jesse managed a smile and held up two gallons of water. "Hi, guys."

"You little devil, where did you manage to steal that from?" Wolf laughed and hopped off the counter, taking the gallons and putting them by the sink. "Drinking water?"

"Yup. I still have most of the door codes for the station, so yeah.. I did steal them." Jesse looked sheepish and sounded more so, voice cracking and squeaking as he spoke. "But I figure we'll be gone before anyone misses them."

"You don't have to come with you know. I'm not sure it's in your best interests to." Fox pointed out, now holding his daughter in his lap, smiling when she yanked on the strings of his hoodie and nearly strangled him in the process.

Jesse dug under his shirt and held up Wolf's dogtags. "Yeah I do. I fought with you guys or at least I tried. I'd rather be here and face uncertainty then stay on the hub and not know if I'll see you all again."

"Have you been huffing helium? You sound all squeaky." Falco asked, then looked baffled when Jesse promptly burst into tears. "What? What did I say?"

"I hate this I hate it I hate it I hate it!" Jesse wailed, scrubbing in fury at his eyes then going still when Wolf pulled him in, muffling his cries into Wolf's shirt and gradually calming down. Fox personally was glad for this because at least everyone's worried gaze wasn't on him anymore. After a few moments Jesse seemed more composed, sniffling and stepping back from Wolf. "I ran out of hormones a while ago. I stretched them out as long as I could, but… yeah." He stared at the ground, looking horrified with himself. "And-and-and .. no, I am NOT going to cry again not going to cry dammit… that means my hormones are all out of whack. I'm having massive mood swings that make roller coasters look like nothing."

"And I thought I was a mess. My condolences, Jesse." Fox said sourly. "To reiterate, I should have done something a while ago. When our water systems first edged into the red I should have had us move on."

"We can't blame you for not wanting to abandon New Lylat. Hell, the idea doesn't exactly sit well with me, but the anger nicely balances it out." Falco snorted. "They're screwing us, Fox."

"You don't have to tell me that. You could cut things with his hip bones right now." Fara complained.

"This." Fox held up Hope, who went "Ma?" in a confused tone. "Is worth it."

"If you don't survive to see her coherently walk I'll have Andross resurrect you so I can kill you again." Fara replied in a peevish tone.

"He can do it, too. I'm walking evidence." Wolf smiled a bit.

"Oh very funny, guys, very funny…"

"What did I miss?" Slippy asked, walking in, wiping off his hands. "We're as sorted as we can be for launch. Wherever we're going, it isn't going to be fast. Personally I wouldn't take her above eighty-five percent right now, with the state of the core."

"Any way we can fix that?"

"Assuming the same elements exist out here as in Lylat?" Slippy wanted to know. "Possibly. We don't have the equipment though, that's the problem."

"We've got problems." Peppy summed up.

"Well, hopefully we'll solve at least some of those by the end of the day." Falco said. "We just have a few hours to wait."

General Pepper sighed, taking off his hat and staring up at the bulk of the ship. He wasn't looking forward to this, but what else could he do? He put his hat back on his head, looking to the side at Lynx, who was pushing a wheelie cart. "Thank you for the help."

"No problem sir." She nodded, pushing the cart along as he walked forward and up the ramp into the docking bay.

"ROB, I know you can hear me, tell Fox I'm here." Pepper intoned, gesturing for Lynx to park the cart.

A few minutes later, Fox walked into the docking bay, leaning on the doorway and peering at him. "Didn't expect you to turn up in person."

"Well, goodbyes over radio never did set well with me, son."

Fox laughed weakly, rubbing his eyes. "I take it they aren't giving me what I want."

"Not hardly, the stubborn asses. They think you're bluffing, I know you well enough to know you wouldn't bluff about this sort of thing." He smiled a touch when Fox walked into the bay to him. "But I broke a few rules, and I got you a going away present." He nodded at the cart Lynx had.

"Oh? Whatcha get me whatcha get me?" Fox sniggered, walking to the cart and looking at the contents. "Water and food, just what I wanted."

"And you will eat some of it!" Pepper smacked him with his hat. "You better, I'm going to be grilled for this."

"Right. I'm surprised you're not upset about this."

"On the contrary, officially I'm supposed to gently lecture you about interrupting meetings and inform you that the rationing rules can probably be broken for Fara. Unofficially I say godspeed, and be safe." Pepper winked. "Shall we, Lynx?"

"Uh, no sir."

He gave her a puzzled look. "What?"

"No, sir." She turned to Fox and saluted. "Permission to come aboard sir."

"This ship's in a bad way, private, and we don't know for certain if we'll get help." Fox frowned.

Pepper, at the same time, said, "That's going AWOL, private."

"I know, sir. Both of you, sirs. But I can't stay on the station and know that Star Fox got screwed. A friend is coming by with my personal effects, if you'll allow it, my friend would like to come as well." She bit her lower lip, looking worried.

"Well, this is interesting. You and your friend, ground soldiers?"

"Trained as pilots, not that it mattered, we never got craft."

Fox stared at her, then nodded over his shoulder. "Grab some supplies and board the ship proper, private. Hope your friend shows up mighty quick." He looked at Pepper. "Unless you mind?"

"I may even forget to report this for a few hours."

The pair smiled at each other, and Pepper laughed, pulling him into a quick hug and exchanging a back slap. "Take care of yourself, General."

"Get out of here, money grubber. Do your dad proud." He tipped his hat and walked back down the ramp, stopping when a poodle carrying two bags walked in and nearly had a heart attack upon seeing her. "No, don't salute, board the ship before it leaves without you." The poodle saluted with a duffle bag and was gone up the ramp, Pepper smiling after her before entering the station, whistling.

"Alright, everyone, these are Privates Faye Dog and Miyu Lynx, respectively." Fox said, looking at the stack of supplies on the table. Water and MREs, nothing fancy but it'd certainly get the job done. "I trust you can divine which is which. Pepper got us the stuff, but the High Command isn't willing to help us."

"I thought that'd be how it went." Peppy sighed, nodding to the new recruits. "Not sure where we're going to put you as far as sleeping goes, privates."

"We can crash on med room beds if nothing else, sir."

"Fox is the only 'sir' on this ship, and even he hates being called that. If you must, call me Hare, but I really do prefer Peppy."

"We'll go through introductions and mercenary command chains later. Where's Falco and Katt?"

"They just came on board." ROB intoned.

"Alright, start sorting for launch ROB, I'm coming up to the command deck."

"Shall I ask for launch clearance?"

"Sure. Why not? They may even give it." Fox smiled a touch.

Peppy looked at him and grinned. "Good to see you back."

"I left?" Fox wanted to know, and exited the room, grabbing his uniform jacket from his room and ditching the hoodie, shrugging into the jacket as he walked, pace picking up as he approached the command deck. His body protested, he was shaking, but damn it this was business and he wasn't about to show the High Command his weakness.

Slippy was the only warm body on the deck when he got there, sitting at one of the stations with multiple screens showing various ship status readings. When Fox nodded at him, he started issuing commands to the Great Fox's core, the cruiser giving a mighty shudder then a bone-deep hum as the reactor came up to speed.

"Eighty-five percent, right?" Fox asked, taking his seat. "How's that extend our travel time?"

"On the conservative side, add an hour to any long trip."

"Good to know." Fox picked up his headset and put it on, flicking the mouth piece once. "Any response, ROB?"

"They've acknowledged and ask that we hold while they get permission to open the doors."

"Yeah, sure they are." Fox glanced at his displays and saw the core was up, and that the ship was buttoned up for departure. "I don't have a lot of patience right now." He shook his head and keyed his mic. "Great Fox, Commanding Officer speaking, requesting permission to launch from station immediately."

"This is Station Command, please hold, waiting for clearance to open your bay."

"I suggest you hurry." Fox half-covered his mic and looked at Slippy. "Can we get out of here?"

Slippy lifted what counted as his eyebrows, and raised his voice so Fox's headset would pick him up. "Without them opening the doors? Yeah, but it will be messy. We don't have room to turn which means we couldn't use the guns, which is the more neat option."

Fox grinned at him, listening to muffled rushed conversation happening at Station Command. "Great Fox CO again requesting permission to launch, and that is right now."

There was more muffled conversation, some mic feedback, then General Pepper's welcome voice came onto the air. "Permission granted, get your trouble-making ass out of here, McCloud."

Fox grinned, seeing the doors open up on his displays, and gesturing for ROB to pull them out of the bay. "Good as gone, General. Thank you."

"Good luck." Pepper dropped the headset and watched the Great Fox back out of the station, turning nearly on point and boosting away, disappearing in the shimmer-blur of warp.

"Guess this is it, then. Independent again." Falco said, slouching at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee from the MREs. "It's been so long it almost feels weird."

"It has been a few years now." Peppy replied. "Though to me, the time increment is astonishing. Hard to believe the war was that long ago."

"Some of us have easier reminders of it than others." Wolf said very quietly, holding up one hand and curling his fingers with a barely audible servo whirr.

"Lingering on the past isn't going to fix the present." Katt said briskly, setting the much-abused star chart on the table. "And to fix the present, we're going to have to prioritize some stuff."

"Believe it or not, I sort of have this handled." Fox said, leaning on one elbow that was planted on the table, other hand poking at the MREs. His stomach had nearly freaked out at the first few bites of food, but he'd kept it down, and was now eating very, very slowly. "Did this stuff always taste this good, or am I that hungry?"

"You're that hungry." Fara said, smiling a bit. "Eat it anyway."

"Um?"

The group looked at the end of table, which is where Faye and Miyu sat. They'd been directed to put their bags in the med bay for now, and had so far just stood in the background and watched. "Alright, look, I agreed to let you two board, so you need to realize a few things." Fox said, poking the MRE lasagna with some suspicion then using the side of the fork to cut it into bites. "We're a casual organization. Beyond the fact that I'm CO, there isn't really a chain of command, and I only really enact my rank when we're in battle. Everyone's on first names basis, everyone can just jump into conversation. Got it?" When both nodded, he continued. "So, what were you going to ask?"

"I was going to ask about our current heading." Faye said, fidgeting with her water cup a bit. "I can't imagine you'd jump this ship without having a heading."

"We do have a heading, one I actually decided on a while ago." Fox was quiet for a few minutes as he managed a few bites of lasagna. "We're in the curious position of having more potential allies than New Lylat does."

"We heard about something happening on the fringe, but it was really hard to get decent details." Miyu said. "Something about a confrontation with the Rekuva?"

"Yeah, they're not high on our list of people we like." Falco said. "Happily there are other intelligent races in the galaxy."

"Some of which feel they owe us." Fox smiled a bit. "Which is a good position to be in."

"The Rinaldi and the Vun." Jesse said, looking at Fox in surprise, also holding a cup of coffee. When this got a nod since Fox was chewing, Jesse sat back and did some math, then grinned. "Party Circle. Only place I can think of that's within easy jump distance that's held by either of those races."

"Spot on. I actually looked, and there are some Rinaldi planets about the same distance, but we've been to Party Circle before and met the leader there. Figure that's our best chance, at the very least I bet they'd let us touch down and put us up someplace while we figure out what the hell is going on."

"Bringing us back to the idea of a priorities list." Said Katt, tossing the star map over her shoulder.

"First one is getting us back to fully functional life support." Slippy said, popping his knuckles. "That means water, and a lot of it, plus filter system replacements for both air and water, and food. Those are really basic needs but I remember that getting this bird fully filled on Lylat was not cheap."

"Gerak on Party Circle seemed to like us though, and you have to admit it'd take one hell of a stiff government not to give a ship in need water." Fox said.

"The water's useless without the filter systems, and they'd probably have to fabricate stuff, which means I'd have to give them some of our system designs."

"I figured as such. I mean, we don't exactly have any money or currency on hand, so we may end up owing a debt."

"Bad position to be in." Falco said. "Once you're in someone's pocket, it is hard to get back out."

"Point taken, but what else can we do? We have no cash and nothing to barter." Fara said.

"Actually we probably do." Jesse said thoughtfully. "Information is always at a premium, and we're new arrivals into the galactic power structure. The question is what information they'd want."

"I don't even want to contemplate that right now." Peppy shook his head. "Sounds like the information equivalent of selling one of your kidneys."

"Alright, so say we somehow get life support back up fully with all the bells and whistles. Then what?" Wolf said, reaching out and opening one of the other MREs, reading the package. "Cornerian City Strip Steak? Yeah, right."

"It helps, but it doesn't exactly fix all our problems. I'm going to be honest with you guys, this ship is not in good shape right now. If none of this had happened, we'd be at ArSpace negotiating an overhaul." Slippy sighed, shuffling through notes he'd made. "Setting aside all the less vital issues, the core needs a refuel. I have no idea how we'd go about getting that from an alien race."

"Any other vital issues?" Fox asked.

"The ones at the top of my list are life support and core refuel. I have a lot of small issues, but… they can be dealt with." Slippy looked unhappy.

"Out with it, shortstop."

"She's old, she's feeling it. She's also overcrowded, and we're feeling that. This ship was not designed to have this many people on it full time." Slippy looked at Faye and Miyu. "Not your fault, we've technically been over capacity for a while now."

"Which is how we ran the water systems down to nothing this fast, and how we emptied the kitchen." Wolf said. "This cruiser was designed to run solo with minimal resupply, but the range it has starts to diminish as more supplies are used."

"This ship is approaching two decades and was designed to go at least five." Fox protested.

"Yeah, but she's also been the spaceship equivalent of rode hard and put away wet." Slippy replied, to a chorus of groans and protests. "Not your fault, Fox, but she's seen a lot of use, and losing a stabilizer not long ago did not help at all."

"It was replaced extremely well though." Jesse smiled a bit.

"I'm not sure what you expect me to do about a ship feeling older then she is." Fox shook his head slightly. "We focus on vital areas first, then start looking into finding some work. With all the wonderful unrest our presence has caused, surely someone in the galaxy has need of us."

"Good lord, we set the fire and now they have to hire us to put it out." Falco looked entertained. "How extremely enterprising of us."

"I am never letting you talk business with a prospective client. Ever." Fox gave him a narrow-eyed look. "Alright, we have a few hours until we arrive, so I suggest we use it to be as prepared as possible. Since Fara isn't letting me leave the kitchen, I have some work to delegate."

"As previously mentioned, you aren't the only one on the ship." Wolf smiled a touch. "What do you need us to do?"


	2. Author's Note

Quick clarification before more confusion ensues.

This story is the sixth in a series. The series so far is..

Infinity's Arrival

Infinity's Reach

Infinity's Descent

Eternity's Test

Eternity's Conflict

Eternity's Redemption

Krystal does not appear in this series, nor do I plan on her appearing in the series. Eternity's Redemption is not set in Lylat, and happens probably two years after the war (I haven't kept exact time).

Fara Phoenix is from the Star Fox manga that Nintendo published in 1993. Faye Dog and Miyu Linx appeared in Star Fox 2, which was not released.

There is a problem with Eternity's Conflict where chapter two appears first for some reason. I've tried several times to fix it to no avail, not sure what's going on there. Apologies for that.

I'm planning on Eternity's Redemption being the last part of the series. Unfortunately this series does not stand alone well, so if you start with this one it may be hard to catch on.


	3. Chapter Two: Meetings

Chapter Two: Meetings

Gerak sighed, tucking his small hands in the pockets of his robes of station, watching the Great Fox slowly negotiate a touch down on the surface of Party Circle. Three days ago, his station office had received a short text message from some distance away, after looking at the codes his office staff had told him it was from New Lylat, and strangely enough it was in an old code system for their own race. Once it had been translated and he'd read it, he spent several time notches staring at it and thinking.

At least he'd had some warning. He'd made some calls, and found a good place for his probable guests to stay. He'd talked to station staff and they'd put together some probable menus, all intelligent guesswork from what he remembered from meeting the strange beings aboard the Lylatian vessel. He'd spoken to the other standing diplomats on the planet, and the local scientists, all of whom wanted to be there if and when the ship landed.

So, here he was, standing on the sun-warmed pale blue tarmac, watching the huge strange ship settle while probably two dozen assorted people stood about a dozen lengths behind him, waiting for permission to politely maul the Lylatians. He'd had to concede to allow the events reporters in, and they were ajitter with the need to ask questions, image pods floating around them like moons. For his part, he wasn't letting anyone else near the Lylatians until he had an idea what was going on. All the message had said was 'we may be coming your way, we may need your help.' The second message which had arrived a few time notches ago, early in the morning, had said 'expect to arrive in five of our hours, hope you're still open to discussion.'

So…

The Great Fox, some sort of carrier if he remembered, seemed to heave a great mechanical sigh as it fell silent, hydraulics shifting as ship settled in and stilled. It was probably supposed to have a landing cradle of some kind, the Vun pondered to himself. It was a scarred ship, wearing the marks of many battles. After several moments the ship opened up and a huge ramp folded down, the end slamming to the blue tarmac, and a familiar figure slowly walked down the ramp toward him. Gerak smiled in spite of himself, his top set of eyes half-closing in an expression of cheer as he walked forward to meet the Lylatian.

"Commander McCloud! I must say I'm surprised to see you back, but you're welcome here." He held out both six-fingered hands palm-forward in greeting, the Lylatian mirrored the position and pressed their palms together, understanding. "I do hope you're willing to explain though, this has got a number of people on my world a bit excited." He slowed down a bit as he spoke, looking the soldier over, top set of eyes opening wide. "You've… changed?"

"Yeah, I have, and I am totally willing to explain the situation."

"I'm not that familiar with your people, is less body mass a good or bad thing?"

"In my case, a very bad thing, though I will say I'm feeling it the worst of any of my crew." He looked over his shoulder, Gerak looked around him and saw the rest of the crew standing at the front of or on the ramp. "May I be honest with you?"

"Oh yes, always, we prize it."

"We need help." Fox shifted, dropping down on one knee in front of Gerak, sighing. "We don't have any food or water."

"That explains how you look! That is terrible, won't your own people help you?"

"No, sir. That's why we're here. I'm here to plead our case, and hope you take pity on our situation."

Gerak stared at him, uncertain what to say.

Fox stood back up, looking at the crowd of people beyond Gerak and managing a little wave, smiling at the explosive tittering this caused. "Quite a crowd."

Gerak glared over his shoulder, twitching an ear at the excited chattering, then looking back at Fox's group. "This is no place for such discussions." He said briskly, earning him a surprised look from Fox. "If you have no food and water, I'm sure you're hungry, thirsty, and would dearly love to see the inside of a cleaning room. I shall call up some carts, and once your people are more comfortable, we'll discuss the fine details."

"You'll help us?" Fox lifted his eyebrows.

"Yes, though how much will obviously have to be discussed. I must make some calls, can you wait a bit of a notch?"

Fox blinked, having little idea what that meant. "Sure?"

Gerak blinked his eyes in sequence and stepped away, digging his hand computer out of one of his robe pockets and bringing up the communications display, getting ahold of his station office. The group that had come with him moved closer while Fox moved a few steps away, waving the rest of his group closer.

"They'll help us?" Fara asked, carrying Hope chest to chest. Hope was wide awake, peering around with the seemingly boundless curiosity she'd sprouted recently. The Great Fox's medbay wasn't sure what to make of her, at one point it had diagnosed her as likely having an Autism-spectrum disorder, and now was suggesting she was on the mild end of the scale.

"So it seems, but it looks like the talks will be long and interesting and HEY WATCH IT!" Fox's blurted the last three words, jolted to the side as a Vun voice squealed in its own language something that sounded suspiciously like 'BAAAAABY!' and plowed by him. "Where the nine hells did he come from?" Fox wanted to know, looking at the Vun, who was ignoring him and focusing on Hope, a dozen round balls with eyes also looking. Hope grabbed one and gnawed on it helpfully.

"She." Jesse supplied helpfully. "And she's a reporter, or whatever their version is."

"Oh. Great. This is going to be fun, I can tell." Falco rolled his eyes. "What's the media obsession with infants?"

"It's because generally you don't see the children of a race you just met." Another voice supplied, a Rinaldi walking up to them and bowing from what approximated a midsection, all four arms extended to the sides. Fox did the gesture back as well as he could with two arms. "You must be Commander McCloud. I've heard a lot about you."

"I hope at least some of it was good." He smiled a touch. Beside him Fara swatted at the floating pods, tried to hide behind Fox, and finding him lacking the qualities of a proper wall hid behind Wolf. Wolf crossed his arms and frowned at the reporter until she stepped back a bit. "You must be a diplomat?"

"Yes indeed, Representative M'ril." The Rinaldi headbobbed. "I'm here discussing a possible alliance with the Vun. Well, that isn't quite right. Our people are discussing an alliance, I'm just the local diplomat."

"That's different. I thought the Rinaldi weren't all that interested in such workings." Jesse said, hands in his pockets, tilting his head at M'ril.

"We weren't, but things have gotten interesting haven't they?"

"Help!" Fara protested, still behind Wolf, but now ringed by Vun scientists. Falco picked one up by the back of his robe and bodily moved him. Hope giggled and shook her new toy around. Fox didn't want to think about the kind of pictures it was taking.

"Oh dear." M'ril said unhelpfully, watching this with an amused expression.

A floating ball of soft yellow-green light drifted over, joining Fox and M'ril. Fox lifted his eyebrows, a fluff was the last thing he'd expected to see on Party Circle. "Commander McCloud, call me Six. I'm the current member of my race in attendance here as a diplomat."

"Six?" Fox jiggled an ear, he'd been told that fluffs had two mouths and two sets of vocal cords, and it produced an affect that while not unpleasant was jarring to listen to.

"My actual designation is Sxxslithyunras." The mouths were sometimes in synch and sometimes alternating, giving the impression of a single source surround sound system.

Fox blinked. "Ah. Yes. So, Six."

The fluff was still laughing (which sounded roughly like taking a sledge energetically to windchimes) when Gerak came over and berated the members of his race, sending the gaggle of scientists and reporters to another part of the tarmac then turning to look back at the group of Lylatians, straightening his robe. Hope wove the pod at him then went back to gnawing on it, drawing his gaze. "A young one? No wonder they decided not to wait for my permission." He shook his head. In the background, several floating pods drifted up, their sides opening. Fox designated them as flying cars and moved on. "I'm glad you sent me that message a few days ago, Commander McCloud, it let me get some things in order."

"You what?" Wolf wanted to know.

"I kind of figured this was coming, so I sent them a text-only message saying we might show up." Fox replied.

"Thanks for telling us."

"There were reasons, I'll explain later."

"There used to be a contingent of Rekuvan diplomats here. They've since been asked to leave the planet, and we now have a large, very beautiful building that no one is living in. It has a number of bedrooms, and everything else needed for a comfortable stay. If you're all comfortable with the idea, I'd like you to leave your craft here and stay there during the discussion." Gerak plowed forward, not giving Fox time to interject. "Your ship will be safe, I assure you, and it will allow your people to be clean and comfortable while you're on Party Circle."

Fox blinked several times and looked at the rest of his group. "Any protests? Voice them now."

After several moments, Falco spoke up. "Sounds like as good as any deal we'll get right now. We can't stay on the ship."

Fox nodded and looked back to Gerak. "I suppose I can trust you not to do myself or my friends any harm."

"Commander McCloud, we heard of your exploits on the fringe systems. Do you really think we would attempt to create a problem with you?" Gerak closed all the eyes on the left side of his head for a moment. "Perhaps you should grab a few changes of outfits so you can have clean clothes as well. Take as long as you need, no rush."

In the end, it didn't take that long for the group to round up their clothing. The majority of it had long ago shifted to a water-deprived laundry room. Some of the group went there and sorted through the rolling bins, paring it down to one bin with some needed clothing for everyone. The rest went through the ship, helping Slippy shut down systems so the moaning, idling reactor could get some rest. The last thing pulled was ROB himself, Slippy unplugging the aging robot from his terminal and walking with him down to the docking bay to reassemble with the others.

The group walked back down the ramp to meet Gerak, who directed a few other Vun to load the laundry bin and the bags into one of the hover cars. Fara kept the bag that had Hope's things with her, the group splitting up into the different cars. Gerak wove Fox to stay with him, Fara, Peppy, and Slippy also piling into the same car.

"You all seem uneasy." Gerak remarked.

Fox was sitting uncomfortably on the bench seat, staring on the window. Fara leaned on him to look out the same window, watching the sights of the planet pass by. Party Circle seemed pristine, like they'd just built around nature. "We are, this is kind of an uneasy situation to be in." He finally replied, looking back toward Gerak. "We're going to an unknown location on an unfamiliar world. It's a soldier thing I guess."

The Vun shook his head. "Relax, your presence here could actually turn into a very good thing. I'm certain we can reach an accord."

"The price is our concern. We don't exactly have any local currency, or indeed any currency at all." Peppy said. "The technology of our craft wouldn't be of much use to you, either."

"You'd be surprised what you have that we could want."

"Well, that isn't foreboding at all." Fox said drolly, taking Hope and looking down at her.

"Daddy…" Hope wove the camera pod at him, which she'd so far refused to relinquish. Whatever made it hover was making somewhat feeble whirring noises. He gently pried it from her hands and gave it to Fara, who released it and watched it careen through the cabin of the car looking for a way out.

"It certainly wasn't meant to be foreboding, just a statement of fact." Gerak sat back, fingers tapping together, middle eyes closing. "The other races of the galaxy don't know anything about your people. We have some general ideas of the temperatures you're most comfortable at, and the atmosphere you can breathe, but that's it. Quite fortuitous that we can breathe the same air really."

"Your normal atmosphere is thinner and has more oxygen then ours." Slippy said. "For us it's like being at a reasonably high altitude, we can survive but we have to adjust activity until we get used to it." His eyes moved back and forth, watching the camera pod, then neatly snatched it out of the air, turning it in his hands as he studied it. The pod made a defeated noise and went still in his hands.

"Our current working government, if you want to call them that, doesn't want to release any information about us if they can. For now, at least." Fox said, gently ruffling Hope's hair. "I figure I'm going to have to release some information to you so you can supply us."

Gerak nodded, gesturing out one of the windows as the car slowed. "That's the old Rekuva consulate."

Fox looked out the window in the indicated direction, and gaped.

The cars were slowing to a halt on a half-circle drive in front of a large building which was clearly designed to be attractive. Much like the Rekuva ships, it appeared to be carved out of one piece of white material that gleamed dully in the morning sunlight. The material was broken up for long thin windows, the building surrounded by short pale green grass. "Seems like quite the building to abandon in place." He finally said.

"My station was discussing what to do with it." Gerak opened the door of the car, stepping out and looking up at the building, his hands in his robe pockets. "We own the land it's built on, we let the Rekuva put the building up. It isn't our style, you see."

"Your people like harmonious angles, the Rekuva like curves." Peppy said, climbing out of the car and giving Fox and Fara a hand out. Slippy hopped out, releasing the camera, which took off into the sky and disappeared.

Gerak gave him a surprised look. "Yes! Quite astute of you." The other cars opened up, the group gathering and looking up at the building in surprise. "Come, the outside of the building is not much use." He led the way forward, touching a sensor panel to open the doors and showing them into the building proper.

The building opened up into a large central room, the centerpiece of which was a pool of water with plants surrounding it and a three story rock-based waterfall crashing into it. The rush and whisper of water filled the room. Above the waterfall was a huge skylight, lighting much of the area, with artificial lighting picking up in the hallways that split away from the central room. The group wandered in, slightly stunned, leaving their laundry and bags by the door to look around.

"You're letting us stay here?" Fox finally asked, looking at Gerak. "What's the catch?"

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean." The Vun blustered, all six eyes squinting up as he peered at the Lylatian commander. "This place has been empty and unattended since we asked the Rekuva to leave. It would do some good to have it aired out and in use, instead of sitting here empty and unused. There are more than enough rooms for you all here. I was able to find some staff for this place's kitchen during your stay."

Fox sighed, giving Hope to Fara then crouching on his toes, looking the shorter Vun in his central set of eyes. "I am very concerned about working up so much debt I'll never be able to pay you back."

"Nonsense. Your stay here has nothing to do with our discussions except your comfort and health." Falco burst into coughing, though Fox caught several muffled words in Lylatian expressing the avian's disbelief in rude terms. "Unless you have reason for these negotiations to be expeditious, I suggest we have our first serious talk once you've all had a chance to get clean, eat something, and relax."

Fox looked over his shoulder at his friends, then back at Gerak. "You're freaking us all out, Gerak."

"I beg your pardon?" The Vun asked blankly.

"You're being too nice to us."

"Commander McCloud, you may not realize this… but you're a hero. When things suddenly changed on the fringe, and the Federation started burning planets to their foundations, your group was the only one that stood in front of their guns and said, in a loud firm voice, 'No this should not be.'" The Vun frowned seriously at him, all eyes wide. "No one else did. We all protested it, communication lines lit up with our wails of dismay, but did we stand up for our own colonies? No. That we didn't have battleships should not have even mattered, we should have tried something, anything. We didn't. You did. You got between a planet-destroying gun and a planet that meant nothing to you, and you said no. You tried to stop it, and in the end you did." He tilted his head to one side. "And you accuse me of being too nice to you? No, Commander McCloud. I am simply the first who had the chance to try to say thank you." He turned and walked back to the door, pausing to look back at them. "Eat something. Rest. I will return later with the other diplomats." That said, he was gone out the door.

Wolf looked around at everyone, amused. "Well, that was interesting."

"Puts it mildly." Fox said, shaking his head. "Alright, we need to figure out how this place is laid out, and…"

"Er, excuse me?" Attention shifted to a nervous Vun in a pale orange robe. "I'm Keti, Leader Gerak asked me to work here during your stay. I'm familiar with the building, I can show you to the private rooms and to whatever other facilities you need."

Fox blinked, and made an effort to roll with it. "That's fine, Keti. We'd like to see the private rooms, and we need to start some clothes washing."

"Certainly, right this way."

"So, what do you think?" Peppy asked, sitting by the waterfall. Slippy was sitting on the ground with his legs in the water, Katt, Jesse, and Miyu sitting with them. All had had their first encounters with Rekuva steam showers, to mixed highly mellow reviews. Falco and Faye had agreed to start the laundry, with a less nervous Keti showing them where the laundry room was and how to use the large and bewildering machine inside. Fox and Fara hadn't shown back up yet, Wolf had disappeared into the kitchens, dragging ROB with him.

The private rooms were actually fairly large, and each had their own bathroom. Fara knew how to operate everything inside and showed them how to turn everything on and off. The beds were Rekuva style, the nests of fluff familiar to the team because there was currently one set up in Fox and Fara's bedroom on the Great Fox.

"I think we're solid here." Katt replied, rubbing the back of her neck. "I've taken a good look around. Feels secure."

"There's security cameras up in this room and the hallways." Jesse said. "I guess that's to be expected, this place did house foreign dignitaries once upon a time."

"I get the idea that your commentary earlier about information trading was spot on." Slippy said, looking at Jesse. "I think they want to know more about us."

"Yeah, I guess the question is how much do we tell them." Miyu said.

"Frankly, we're going to have to give them some medical information if we expect to get any amount of provisions from them. Otherwise we're gambling that something they give us may be something we'd react to." Jesse shrugged.

Fara appeared and wandered over, carrying a clean, redressed Hope and a bowl. "Fox is asleep. He showered, said something about sitting down for a while and was out like a light." She sat down about five feet away from the water, plopping Hope down on her bottom and setting the bowl in front of her.

"That doesn't surprise me, I don't think he's been sleeping well." Peppy leaned and peered at the bowl, which appeared to be full of purple goo. "Dare I ask?"

"I asked Keti about something to feed a young child, and she brought me this from the kitchen. Apparently it's a fruit paste that Vun children are fond of, she assured me that it's very mild and such." Fara watched Hope play with the bowl. "I tried some, it tastes sort of like pomegranates."

Hope rocked the bowl back and forth, then looked at Fara. Fara offered her what appeared to be a square spoon, Hope fisted it and looked back at the bowl. The rest of the group fell silent, watching this with some level of fascination. In spite of a warning that Hope may have a mental handicap, Fox and Fara had tried to raise her somewhat normally. They read to her, played with her, and tried to instill in her some positive behaviors. To that end, Hope was reasonably behaved for her age, if somewhat overzealous. After what appeared to be a long moment of thought, looking between the spoon and the bowl, apparently an association was remembered and Hope dug the spoon into the bowl, got some on the spoon, and promptly missed her mouth.

"Well, she gets an A for effort." Miyu said, smiling. Hope meanwhile tried again, then flung the spoon with a frustrated "Mommeeee!" Fara retrieved the spoon and offered her a spoonful, which Hope ate cheerfully. Seeing happy tail wagging, Fara continued to offer up spoonfuls, smacking inquisitive adult hands with the spoon.

"Do we have any idea when Gerak's returning to discuss things?" Peppy asked, though most attention was still on the portrait of infant glee.

"No, but maybe it's for the best if he doesn't come back for a while. Let Fox sleep." Jesse said.

Fara nodded wordlessly. For the last several month or so, she'd woke up to find Fox sitting up in bed, head in his heads, eyes closed. To her questions, always the same answer: he didn't know what to do. He was scared, and though he didn't admit it, she knew he was hungry. She'd just held him and hoped, and apparently now that his group was safe, he'd promptly unwound, and slept soundly.

Distant chatter was heard, and Wolf entered the main room, ROB trailing along behind him. "Am I missing anything?"

"No. Fox is asleep, laundry's getting done." Jesse offered him a smile.

"What are you using ROB for anyway?" Slippy asked, looking at the robot. Someone had put what may have been a Vun chef's hat on him.

"He agreed to observe and make note of cooking techniques and recipes. I'd like you guys to try some stuff, then these cooks I've been bothering will get started on an actual meal."

"With you still bothering them." Jesse smiled.

"Oh, yes, of course." Wolf grinned, helping people to their feet.

Fox woke up slowly, lifting his head from the fluff filling the Rekuva bed and yawning. He could only vaguely remember climbing into the bed. Shaking his head, he looked at his watch and found himself no more enlightened as to the time. Hell, he wasn't sure how many hours this planet had, let alone how they kept track of time. Making a note to do better research when coming to a planet, he rolled over and sat up, blinking in the dimness of the bedroom. By the shift of the light, he'd missed most of the day.

Why hadn't anyone woke him up?

He made the effort and managed to climb out of the nest bed, staggering to the bathroom and using it, finding a stack of clean laundry inside the door on his way out. Struggling into a random black t-shirt, he wandered down the softly lit hallway, claws clicking on the warm floor. Hearing no voices from the other rooms, he entered the common room, and it hit him. The unmistakable smell of bread or something like it, and something else spicy and indescribable in his sudden wave of near nausea-inducing hunger. He shook off and followed his nose, cutting down another corridor that branched off the common room, opening a swinging door and sticking his head in.

"Good morning sunshine!" Wolf said cheerfully, the first to see him. Everyone else was sitting on the floor around a low table, an assortment of random-looking dishes laden with food in front of them. In addition to his team mates, Gerak and the two ambassadors were there, as well as a group of Vun who looked like cooks. "Sleep well?"

"Thanks for waking me up." Fox replied grouchily, staggering forward and claiming a cushion next to Fara, basically collapsing onto his ass as jitters started traveling up and down his legs. His well-worn jeans felt stiff and hard to move, and standing currently wasn't worth the effort.

"You needed sleep, we didn't want to wake you." Fara explained.

Fox leaned on the table and shook his head, staring at the plates. "What am I looking at here?"

"Mostly traditional Vun cuisine, nothing really fancy. Also a few things I tried that turned out alright." Wolf said, moving plates around and shoving a few toward him. "Here's the mild stuff, dig in." Fox needed no encouragement, all manners briefly gone as he loaded up the square platter that was at his place.

"Your friends were nice enough to tell us what happened that brought you here." Said Gerak, who had long since pushed his plate back, mildly impressed with the dishes Wolf had made and having a new understanding on the appetites of his guests. "You should have come here before things got this bad."

"This was sort of always the plan, but I didn't want to walk away from New Lylat." Fox said once he had swallowed, barely tasting what he was eating. Wolf noticed this and shoved plates of vegetables toward him. "Desperate times call for desperate measures, right?"

"Apparently so." Six observed, one shiny pseudopod holding a cup. "Your ship mechanic was nice enough to give us an honest run down of your vessel."

There was a silent empty moment, Fox stopped with a fork halfway to his mouth as he looked at Slippy. Slippy, well knowing that he'd demolished any of Fox's chances of negotiation, swallowed and looked back.

"Honestly, we don't understand how you managed what you did. We know that the stories of what you did on the fringe are not sheer fantasy." Six shifted the cup about, pausing. "Broken things, Commander McCloud. My people do not like broken things."

"Can we please stop with the really ominous commentary?" Fox nearly snarled, and was silent as he demolished his way through what may have been a fish steak of some sort and half a loaf of something like flatbread. Flavors still weren't registering, his system taking the barrage of food as well as it could. "So, all the cards are on the table then. You know what we're up against. We're basically a mercenary crew with little functioning equipment." He paused and looked at ROB, who was sitting next to Slippy. "No offense intended."

"None taken, I agree." The robot replied.

"You also probably understand my situation. We need basically everything and we have no way to pay for it. I don't like the concept of begging, Gerak, but I'm not going to stand by and leave my crew like this." He shook his head again, grabbing for a drink.

"Considering how hard we failed you by letting you do this to yourself…" Peppy shook his head.

"Oh enough." Wolf said, voice shifting to a commanding boom and getting silence for his troubles. "Thank you. Fox, no stressing out, you're on the knife edge of hospitalization as it is. Frankly, we're relegating you to pen duty. Once we have some sort of agreement, your only role in this is to say 'Make it so.'"

Fox scowled. "Excuse me? Who's commander, here?"

"Oh, you definitely are, you just aren't allowed to physically participate for a while. Deal with it, we all agreed on it."

There was another silence as Fox looked around at the table and saw nothing but people agreeing with Wolf, including from Fara, who also mustered a weak smile and messed up his head fur. He suppressed an eye twitch, slugged down half the glass of water, and set it back down. "Alright, fine, you mutinying bastards."

"Arr, there be a sulky commander on deck." Falco observed.

Fox pegged a plant product, possible a vegetable, off Falco's head. Falco caught it on the rebound and ate it. "Moving on. I'm not sure this is the best environment for negotiation. This isn't exactly conductive to business."

Gerak and the two diplomats all wore expressions that the Lylatians figured was amusement. "But perhaps this makes it the best place to." M'ril suggested.

"That's strange logic." Miyu said, grabbing herself another piece of bread.

"No, I can see his point." Jesse looked at the diplomats. "It's the perfect place for negotiation. For them."

"Are you suggesting that we're going to take unfair advantage of the situation?" Six asked.

"I suspect he's suggesting that none of us has ever met a politician that didn't have his interests in mind." Falco replied.

"I may have to concede that." Gerak said, hands folded on the table. "I certainly won't give you something for nothing in return."

"We don't exactly have anything to give." Slippy protested.

Fox went still, looking at Gerak out of the corners of his eyes. "You want something, don't you? You already have a price in mind."

"Very, very sharp, Commander McCloud." Gerak looked mildly impressed. "M'ril, Six and I spent quite some time in discussion, and we all called our respective governments to discuss the situation. We do have a price in mind, or at least have something we want from your group. How much it's worth, well… that is up to negotiation."

"That price being?" Fara asked since Fox was chewing.

"Your ship must have some sort of medical facility on board, yes?"

"Yes, we have a small but fully functioning medical bay." Peppy said. "It can't really serve more than four people, and I really doubt any of our technology is better than yours. What about it?"

"If you have a medical facility, you obviously have a wealth of files stored on board detailing the medical knowledge of your race." Gerak replied. "That is what we want. Information detailing the biologic nature of your peoples, from basic body function to brain surgery."

Fox choked on his drink.

Looking back, everyone agreed that Fox's reaction had been mild overall. Once he got the water out of his windpipe, he calmly stated that he couldn't agree to any terms without discussing the matter with his teammates in private. Gerak had agreed and said there was no rush, he'd stop by tomorrow and ask if any decision had been made. During all this, everyone else had been nearly frozen, unable to voice what they were thinking.

The politicians left shortly thereafter, citing that it was getting late and they had some other things to attend to before the evening was out. The current staff of the building also left, after helping to clear the table and showing Wolf where the leftovers were going to be kept so they could keep Fox eating as he was able to. People wandered back to rooms and returned, eventually finding themselves around the waterfall.

Finally, Falco broke the near-silence. "All the medical knowledge on the Great Fox. Well, it isn't a diagnostics department but there is a lot of information stored on the drives there."

"Yes, a lot of text and a lot of AI run downs." Slippy said. "I think I saw an AI run down in there for open heart surgery."

"That is true. If absolutely necessary, I could perform surgery." ROB said.

"What can be used to heal can be used very efficiently to kill." Wolf said very quietly.

Fox was sitting on the ground staring at the waterfall, ears turned to listen to them but saying nothing. Fara sat by him and looked at him in concern, having put Hope down for the night. He didn't say anything, just continued to stare at the water.

"That's the problem. I'm not sure if I trust this." Peppy said.

"What is there to trust?" Falco demanded. "Even if they're fine with us now, they could use it against us later."

"Sooner or later all this will get out." Jesse said. "Some of it is anyway, thanks to me."

"Better later than sooner." Katt said. "New Lylat isn't in a position where it can defend itself right now."

"We're going to have to give some of it to them anyway if we expect to be supplied, though."

"All due respect, Jesse, but you have more reasons to trust them than we do."

"Why would they do anything to us though?" Faye wanted to know. "We've done nothing to them, and Gerak called Fox a hero."

"As said, just because they like us now doesn't mean they'll like us later." Falco shook his head. "If we do this, we aren't just selling ourselves out, we're selling out our entire race."

"We're going to be signing agreements anyway, can't we build something in that protects us from this information being used against us?" Slippy said.

"In desperate times that wouldn't mean anything, and what reason would they have to follow it besides keeping to an agreement we could in no way enforce?"

"You're a very suspicious person, aren't you?" Miyu observed, looking at Falco.

"I hate politicians. I'm an anarchist at heart."

"The thing is, what else do we have to offer?" Peppy asked, pondering. "They've set their price. What if they're not willing to negotiate for something else?"

Everyone looked at each other and shrugged, shaking their heads. Fara continued to look at Fox, who seemed to have deeply drawn into himself. "Fox? Are you alright?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Thinking. I am listening." He replied after a moment, ears twitching.

"You haven't voiced your thoughts yet on this." Wolf said, sitting down on Fox's other side and looking at him. Fox's once-muscular build was now spectacularly messed up; his ferret-on-crack metabolism had burned through a lot of muscle mass, bringing some of his bones into sharp relief. Wolf, who looked at him and saw the pack leader he loved very much, now had to suppress a lot of rage at seeing Fox like this. "What are you thinking?"

Fox heaved out a sigh, rubbing his eyes with one hand, trying to figure out why he felt tired after sleeping all day. "I'm thinking we don't have much of a choice."

"If the wrong person finds this stuff out they could wipe out the entirety of New Lylat." Falco protested.

"Look, if you have any ideas feel free to voice them. The Great Fox isn't going to be able to lift again, not without a lot of work, not without at least life support running." Fox popped his knuckles. "We're going to have to give up some of this to get supplied, right?" He looked at Jesse and Slippy. "Alright, brainiacs, if we just gave them that much information, how long before they could extrapolate out the fine details?"

Jesse frowned. "Technically they already know enough to wreak havoc. Knowing our base material gives you a lot to go on. It wouldn't take a genius to figure that since we're a carbon based life form, that something like say arsenic would cause us trouble. That aside, depending on New Lylat… yeah, less than a year. Call it six months, depending how many people were trying to figure us out and whether or not they get any information out of the Entity."

"Oh, hell, what did you tell it?" Katt asked.

Jesse gave her a blank look. "Everything I knew."

Fox wove a hand vaguely at them, getting attention again. "Alright, so call it six months if we don't give them the information. How much is scheduled to be finished in New Lylat for the next six months?"

"Provided nothing goes wrong?" Slippy asked. "That should be desalination and water treatment, and the first crops out of hydroponics. Why do you ask?"

Fox rubbed his chin, tried to stand up, and ended up being assisted to his feet by Wolf. He merely nodded his thanks, Fara steadying him as he turned to look at everyone else. "I think we should give them what they want." Seeing people start to protest, he held up his hand. "I'm not saying we should give it to them without conditions, or for cheap. I'm simply saying we agree to their price."

"Conditions? What could we hold them to?" Falco wanted to know.

"Well, we can't really expect them to sign something swearing altruism on this information and signing a non-aggression treaty would be counterproductive to what we are." Fox pondered. "But I bet we could get them to agree to send diplomats to New Lylat."

Falco seemed to think, then smiled. "I think I see your point. If they're so willing to deal with us, they're probably willing to deal with New Lylat, which could probably suck up their pride and willingly sign a non-aggression treaty."

"Bingo." Fox smirked. "I also say we stick it to them in negotiations. Get as much as we can." Seeing approval of this tactic, he continued, lacing one of his hands with one of Fara's. "For example, we have three races wanting this information but only one currently ponying up anything for it. I think not. If the fluffs and the Rinaldi want in on this, they're going to have to offer something up in return." He looked at Slippy and Jesse. "I expect you can work out a list of demands."

"Well certainly. No ceiling on the demands?" Slippy asked, eyebrows up.

"Well, I imagine disco balls and carpet are out of the question." Fox wobbled, then shook off. "That said, I feel really, really tired. I hate to say this, but I need to go back to sleep, guys. Anyone have any protests against this plan?"

Everyone else looked at each other, then back at him. "I don't think so."

"Alright then. See you in the morning."

Fara walked with Fox back to the room they were using, letting go of his hand there to go over to the infant bed that the staff of the building had found for her. Vun apparently slept in something like a padded hammock, and Hope was curled up in the center of hers, sleeping soundly. Fox staggered after her and curled his arms around her, looking down at Hope with a smile.

"I think she's getting better." He finally said quietly. "I mean, she's not meeting eyes but she seems really quick."

"She'll be fine." Fara replied, giving Fox a squeeze then shoving him toward the bed. "Lay down before you fall down."

Fox mustered half a grin, pulling the shirt back off then looking down at himself for a moment, one finger ticking over the lines of his ribs before looking at her again. "I'm a mess." He said after a moment, shaking his head.

"Glad you finally noticed, because the rest of us have been agonizing over how you look for a while now." She replied, walking over and pulling him into a hug. "You didn't have to do what you did."

"At the time, it seemed like the right thing to do." He whimpered vaguely. "I'm sorry. I know I'm not the easiest person to live with."

"Oh stop that." She snickered, flicking his nose. "Don't linger on it. It was a bad time, but it's behind us."

He nodded, climbing into the bed with some effort and flopping down, then rolling onto his back, yawning. She crawled in after him and snuggled in, watching him doze off, and finally able to really sleep herself because she knew he'd be alright.


	4. Chapter Three: Deals

Chapter Three: Deals

Fox woke up before Fara did, slipping out of the bed and staggering to the bathroom, lingering in the steam shower as his mind rolled over the events of the past day. He honestly was stunned that it had worked at all. His team was supported for now, and things may actually turn out alright. The cost, however, looked to be astronomical.

He honestly couldn't figure out why another race would want medical knowledge on his people. Being raised by his father and nearly growing up in the military had given him an extremely cynical outlook when it came to politicians and their prices. Even the money he'd gotten for the war had had a bitter taste, he knew it'd been skimmed by most of the generals and reduced to a point of less than half original value, under the lie that 'if we give you more the public won't approve, we're paying you with tax money!'

Now, here he was, bartering for the basics. He wondered what his father would think of him now, nearly a famine victim, bargaining for food. He shook his head, shutting the shower off and shaking vigorously. Already, hunger was biting through his system. His body seemed to be trying to make up for lost time, and looking down he realized sourly that he was going to end up with a paunch. What the hell, not even legally able to drink on Corneria, and…

No, wait. He blinked, picking up one of the soft square towels the building staff had provided, burying his face in it. _How old am I? _He'd honestly not been keeping track of the days, months, or even years since Black Monday. He'd been eighteen during the war, and turned nineteen before Black Monday. It'd taken a year or so to evacuate, so that means he was twenty on evacuation? And Hope was learning to walk now and had a smattering of vocabulary, so…

_I'm 21._ He stopped, looking at himself in the reflective crystal panel that made up one of the walls of the rekuvan bathroom. "This is definitely not where I saw myself at 21." He finally said, looking at himself. Out of sheer boredom, he'd worked out a lot during the evacuation flight, and some of that build remained. His legs and arms looked alright, though half the time they shook from weakness still. His torso was totally out of whack, but he could probably get back into shape. Huffing, he finished drying off and got himself into shorts and a t-shirt, wandering out of the bathroom.

"Good morning. Do you feel any better?" Fara wanted to know. She was sitting on the floor by Hope's hammock, rocking it with one hand.

"Getting there. Better than I was before, I guess. Not as cold. On that note, I'm finding something to eat."

She grinned at him. "You do that. Put some meat back on so I can pounce on you without feeling guilty."

"Yes, ma'am." He grinned back and exited the room, padding down the hallway and entering the common room. There, he found Slippy and Jesse by the waterfall. Well, that wasn't quite right, Slippy was in the waterfall pool, his shoulders and arms out of the water, reading a square screen he was holding. Jesse also had one, and both were hooked up to a red box. "Do I want to know?" He asked, walking over.

"M'ril gave it to us." Jesse said. "Ship geek stuff."

"I'm not sure we've actually run into a Rinaldi ship." Slippy said. "I don't remember doing so. Really interesting tech, actually."

"Really?" Fox crouched on his toes, looking at the totally nondescript black box. It didn't appear to be plugged into anything and was whirring very gently. "Anything of real interest to us?"

Slippy grinned at him. "Could be. I'll get back to you."

"Much obliged. Who else is up?"

"Wolf was up before any of us were." Jesse said. "Peppy, too. I'm not sure about anyone else."

"And the ambassadors?"

"M'ril came by with this, Gerak was with him. Haven't seen Six yet today."

"Thanks for the update." He stood back up, heading to the kitchen and leaving the geeks to their revelry. The dining area was lit up, and chatter could be heard from the actual kitchen, so he headed there, leaning in the door. "Good morning."

"So far." Wolf agreed, surrounded by cooks with what looked like raw meat cutlets spread out on a cutting board in front of him. "Hungry?"

"Hit me with everything you got." Fox paused, head counting. "…are there more cooks today, or was I that out of it yesterday?"

"Both. Go sit, I'll bring you something." Wolf wove him out, then picked up where he'd left off in Galaxy Common, discussing cooking techniques from Lylat while the Rinaldi cooks listened with interest. Cooking was cooking the universe over, but cultural differences always remained, and little united people better than an argument about what to put on a pizza or pizza-like object.

When Gerak and the ambassadors arrived back at the former consulate, they found the group had gathered in the dining area, Slippy and Jesse having carried their Rinaldi electronic library into there and set it up on the table. Food had been made and ate, only Fox was still picking at a plate of food in front of him, more or less in a continual state of carb loading.

"Morning, Leader Gerak." Fox said by way of greeting. "Ambassadors M'Ril, Six."

"Morning greetings to you all as well. I trust the night treated you all well."

"The beds take a bit of getting used to." Falco said. "But I think we all slept hard."

"I'm not sure how the Rekuva sleep in those things. That you manage to is a fact that amazes me." Gerak shook his head, taking a place at the table, ending up between Peppy and Falco. M'ril sat down by Fara, looking at Hope, whose teeth were losing a battle against flatbread. Six drifted over to hover behind Jesse and Slippy, who were still mostly enraptured by whatever was on the screens. "Did you all have a chance to discuss our proposition?"

"Yes." Fox glanced at everyone, who all gestured for him to do the talking. "We agree to your price."

Gerak's eyes opened wide. "I admit, I did not think you would."

"We do, but there are a few points I wish to bring up before we make any serious negotiations on the trade." Fox kept his voice level, trying to remember what his dad said about deal making. Most of his father's rules were already out the window, the party he was negotiating with knew he was over a barrel, but that didn't mean he had to look and act as desperate as he was. "From what you said, your people are not the only one who wants this information Gerak." He looked at M'ril, then at Six. "You two do as well, and therefore, so do the people you represent."

"That is correct." M'ril said. Six's color brightened a few shades, Fox took that to be a fluff nod.

"Right now, Gerak and Party Circle, and by proxy the Vun, are the only ones offering me something in return… resupply. So that brings me to the question of what your two races are willing to offer me in return for this information." Fox paused to take a few more bites, pondering the meat on his plate. Apparently, the Vun didn't believe in eating land-bound meat sources, so most of the protein in their diet was farmed fish. So far Fox had had several varieties, some of which were clearly a 'red' meat.

"And if we offer nothing?" Six asked, color and voice both toning down.

"Then I will be negotiating with Gerak so that the Vun will not pass the information on to your race."

"If that was the case, then of course an agreement could be met. We do have treaties standing with the Rinaldi and Six's people, but I'm sure everyone would understand that this is a separate matter." Gerak's voice could have oiled bearings.

There was a long contemplative semi-silence, during which the Lylatians muttered to each other in their home language. Hope, blissfully unaware of the dealings going on, wove the square of flatbread at Fox. So far, she'd eaten half through sheer determination. "Breatt daddy. BREATT!" Fox smiled helplessly, ruffling her flaming red hair as the ambassadors considered.

"Word of the day: bread." Fox smiled at Fara. "When did she pick that up?"

"Got me." Fara gave him a baffled shrug.

"I see no reason why we couldn't come to an agreement." M'ril said. "Your logic is perfectly understandable. You're trading the information for supplies, so why should we get it for free?"

"Exactly." Fox nodded.

"The question then is, what do you want in return for giving us the information?" Six asked.

This made the vulpine quirk an eyebrow. "I don't know. What can you give us?"

"Almost anything if I request a production cruiser from my people." The fluff replied. "You have run into my race before, so you know how we like to construct things."

"Atomic scale up." Slippy nodded. "Quite an impressive display of nanotechnology, well, impressive to us at least."

"So, let us approach this logically. M'ril, may I negotiate for the two of us for the time being?"

"Certainly, though I may interject if I feel it necessary." The Rinaldi nodded, sitting with his legs folded up to his torso section, arms on what passed for knees, watching Hope eat with a superbly entertained expression.

"To put it in terms of sheer facts, your group is not in the best of positions right now. Your ship is unable to even provide full life support, your fighter craft are in a disarray." The fluff's voice went jagged, the aura of amber light that seemed to be its body going spiky to match. "I mentioned at our last meeting that my people do not like broken things. It goes against what we are. We are a hearty people, and if we get hurt, we repair ourselves easily. Much of our designs are based around this fact." There was a long pause. "That said, when your tech told us about the problems, I took it upon myself to go study your shut-down ship last night. Do not worry, I changed nothing, but I will say this: you need much more than a simple resupply."

Fox nodded. "I am aware of the troubles of my ship. A resupply was simply the most urgent thing, the thing we need to work out everything else."

"Indeed. Unfortunately, without access to the original production plant that built your craft, any parts you need will need to be custom made." Now the only voice speaking in the room, the fluff drifted closer to the table and picked up a piece of fruit. "Which isn't difficult for my people, and could be done in a few days if you gave us the design specifications. But, am I wrong in saying that even if your ship is brought to 100% it is insufficient?"

Fox hesitated. "With as many people as we're currently fielding, we do have a lack of space. It can be worked with but it does restrict how far away we can get from a friendly source of supplies."

The fluff juggled the fruit back and forth, prompting a squeal of glee and excited clapping from Hope. "Your ship is insufficient and you don't have enough craft to launch. Of course, it's an easy fix." The piece of fruit disappeared in a _paft_ of dust, Six's color brightening right after. "If something ceases to work, replace it."

Fox looked at the fluff for a very long moment, having long since put his eating utensil down. "I'm clarifying this because I'm not sure I believe it. Are you offering me a new carrier in return for the information on the old one?"

"Nonsense. I'm offering you, in collaboration with M'ril, a battleship and fighter craft. Between our two races the usual price would be reasonable." Six picked up another piece of fruit. "Do you agree, Ambassador M'ril?"

"Oh, completely, though I would have to make a few calls before confirming anything." The Rinaldi headbobbed.

Fox sat still for a moment, then put his head in his hands as the two sides of his brain attempted to stab each other. The real, quite logical need for a larger, better craft warred with childhood memories, the heart-aching thought that the Great Fox was almost all he had left of his father. "You … your offer is amazingly generous, Ambassador Six."

"You asked what I can give, I knew what you needed, it seems the logical thing to offer." The fluff's spikes faded, voice somehow puzzled. "Between M'ril's race and I, I'm certain we can provide you with a new design that will make the most of all our technology."

"I will need to confer with my friends."

"Then do so. I would think this would be a simple thing to agree to."

Falco shook his head and spoke up, in Lylatian. "Whatever the cost of the ship is, it's spread out between two races who hold how many planets? Drop in the bucket, even if it is exactly what we need."

"I think new craft is a fair trade." Wolf replied. "The Great Fox is a beautiful bird, but I think she's had her day."

"I am forced to agree." ROB said. "This many people would put a lot of strain on the water system alone."

"What will happen to the Great Fox if you do give us this ship?" Slippy asked Six, frowning.

"We assimilate the base elements of old craft to construct new ones. Waste not." The fluff replied peacefully. "And it allows ships to live on and on. We have some craft in their 20th cycle."

"How can you even call it the same ship then if you've taken it apart on that scale?"

"Because it is." The fluff replied patiently. "It is a very controlled process. We can actually leave entire ship sections intact and change everything around it."

Peppy was looking at Fox and saw the lines of distress on his face. "James."

Fox nodded weakly. "It's stupid. It's sentimental. But.. she's mine. She was willed to me. It was my dad's room, it was his command chair. She's all I have now that was him." He was silent for a long moment, then looked at Six again. "You just said you can leave some parts of a ship static while you change others."

"Certainly, if that's what is desired. Though if a room is to change, it is generally easier to have the room emptied of anything one desires to keep."

Fox changed back to Lylatian. "We keep the command deck and everything else we can. Quarters will obviously be changing as we decide how to house everyone, but we keep everything we can. This will be the Great Fox, but it's her second life. I'll be wanting input from everyone on the design." He looked at Slippy and Jesse, who had set down the screens. "I'll be wanting you two in on that up to your eyeballs. Nothing gets done without your explicit approval. You know what I'd approve of, and if not, ask me." He sat back, taking stock of anyone. "Any protests? Voice them now, because I doubt there's any backsies in this sort of discussion." He added this in a droll voice.

"I think we're all in, Fox." Wolf said.

"Excuse me? What about us?" Faye asked. "I mean, I know we're just tagalongs but we're in on this too now." Miyu nodded.

"Welcome to the team, probationary pilots." Fox replied, ignoring the shocked exclamations as he turned his gaze back to Six. "I think we have an accord. Obviously any designs have to be approved by my crew."

"Excellent, and understandable. I'll request a production platform from one of my people's worlds. M'ril, you'll make arrangements with your people?"

"Once I discuss things with them, yes. If I may ask, when do we get the information from you?" M'ril looked at Fox, head tilted.

"You all get your information when a ship design is agreed upon and production begins. Do you find that fair?" Fox asked.

"Completely." M'ril headbobbed, Gerak and Six also indicating positive responses.

"Well then, I think we all have quite a few things to arrange. Gerak, can we have some transports at our disposal? We have a ship to partly offload."

"Certainly, Commander McCloud. I must say, I'm somewhat impressed by this deal, though it isn't what I expected."

Fox smiled a touch. "I do what I can. Though I do have one additional suggestion that has little to do with our deal making."

"Tell it, I'm interested to hear it."

"This group doesn't speak for our race. We're mercenaries after all, so we don't have any diplomatic authority." Fox let his voice roll easily. "So, might I suggest that all of you talk to your governments about sending ambassadors to New Lylat? We do have friends still there, with our recommendation I'm sure they would be accepted and you could start discussions."

"What a good idea! I shall get back to you on that." M'ril said.

"If your people are in as desperate need as you are, that might be… interesting." Six finally said, one mouth expressing intrigue and the other distress. "I will also get back to you."

"I'm sure my people will be fine with the idea." Gerak said, standing from the table. "Come, gentle ambassadors, we have many calls to make."

Once the group was alone again, discussion broke out, several people taking time out to pound Fox's back or slug his shoulder by way of approval for his negotiation, then turning to the prospect of a new ship. A new carrier? While that sounded excellent it clearly was going to be a pain in the ass on some levels. The idea that some rooms would have to be emptied was irritating, though Slippy pointed out that if they were just changing ships up traditionally they'd have to empty everything instead of only some. Either way, it brought up the question: what was going to be kept, and what changed?

Fox was adamant about some things. He wanted the command deck untouched as much as possible, sans new control boards for any added or changed systems. The same went for the kitchen, the den, the weight room and the observation deck if at all possible. Slippy said that beyond some expansion to allow for the larger crew to move easier, all of that was doable.. none of the above really applied to the systems that desperately needed to be changed.

Slippy was also adamant about some things. The Great Fox's new form needed better armor, and better defenses. The original design of the ship had never really been meant to fly forward in combat, it had been pressed into it and had paid the price. The Great Fox was a carrier with two forward facing guns. The new Great Fox would be a dreadnought with payload. The engine plant, though an amazingly good design, would either need to change out or be expanded on so that they'd never run into a 'low power' situation again.

Bringing up another crucial point: the g-diffuser systems. A system that was barely out of experimental phase when Fox's team had gotten ahold of the new Arwings, they'd come to depend on the tech for some of the flying techniques they had. The retrofitted Great Fox also used it to ease landing and takeoff. It was tech that Arspace held, and now Arspace was gone. Slippy had downloaded all the released design documentation to the Great Fox before the evacuation, so everything could be fabbed up, and probably would have to be. The arwings were in nearly as bad of shape as the Great Fox. Slippy's in particular was basically ruined, the frame bent in a way he couldn't repair due to a clash with a Rekuva battleship. The Landmaster had been cannibalized for its weaponry and still languished damaged from Wolf testing one of Jesse's exo suits.

Also on the table were crew quarters. With expanding the ship, the chance to expand the rooms a bit was available. Katt suggested that even if the rooms stayed the same shape, a redesign to account for a lot more built-in storage would be nice, and everyone agreed with that. And everyone else agreed that Fox and Fara needed better quarters, much to Fox's surprise. In the end, Wolf said the living quarters on the ship should be expanded as much as possible without putting a strain on the ship. His reasoning was simple: this was no longer a carrier ferrying them from home to work and back. This was actually their home, so it damn well better be comfortable.

No one had an argument against that, and all said, most decided to head back to the Great Fox. Doing a bunch of laundry on the new ship made no sense so some were heading back to help round up the laundry, Slippy also wanted help walking down the ship and making notes on what should be changed.

And suddenly, Fox, Jesse, and Hope were alone in the common room of the former Rekuva consulate. Fara had kissed him goodbye and said she'd be back in a little bit with more of their clothes, leaving Hope chattering happily in his arms and trying to strangle him with his dogtags. Jesse had moved the Rinaldi electric library back to the common room, and was sitting on the floor with one of the screens. At their sudden abandonment, he offered Fox a sheepish grin.

"I'm not used to all this. Not really a military guy or anything." Jesse said finally.

Fox shrugged, standing and putting Hope down on her feet, leaning down a bit so she could hold onto his fingers and walk forward. "Neither is Slippy. I never said you had to be a soldier."

"It's appreciated. I mean, you really had no reason to let me stay on board."

"Sure I do. Wolf would have killed me in my sleep if I had put you off the ship."

Jesse was still laughing when the consulate door opened, a pair of fluffs drifting in and moving over to where they were. Fox pondered them both, wondered briefly if it would be speciest to ask them to wear name tags. "Good morning."

"Good morning." Said the slightly larger of the two, Fox recognized the voices as belonging to Six. "This is Drek, one of the few others of my people currently on Party Circle."

"Pleased to meet you, Drek." Fox replied, picking up his hands and letting Hope swing there for a moment just a few inches off the ground, to squeals of delight. "Are you also a diplomat?"

"I'm what our people call a societal observer. I watch the living patterns of cultures. I actually came here to observe the Vun on Party Circle." The fluff drifted forward, Fox noted this one's color tinted slightly blue as compared to Six's amber. "I'm actually here to ask if I could come here during the days and watch your group interact. It would give us insight to your society."

"Well, I'm not sure we're a good slice of Lylatian society, but it wouldn't bother me provided you respected our privacy." Fox set Hope back down, walking slowly with her. "Most of my crew has returned to my ship for the moment though."

"I actually came by to discuss that matter. Unfortunately it may be as many as four days before a production platform arrives." Said Six, drifting to pace Fox as he walked. Drek hung back slightly and said nothing. "It seems there was not one fully supplied and ready so they're waiting on raw materials and paperwork to go through. Ship designers from my people should be here tomorrow though, as with M'ril's."

"Glad to know we aren't the only race to deal with bureaucracy." Fox snorted.

"I don't think any race escapes it. It's a wage of a progressing society."

"Considering we need a ship design before we need a shipyard, I don't think the delay is going to hurt anything, but thanks for telling me."

There was a silence, during which Fox slowly looped the waterfall pool, letting Hope guide their walking path but not letting her get too close to the water. Jesse had become reabsorbed in whatever was on the screen he was holding.

"I would like to ask you a question, Commander McCloud. A few, actually." Six sounded worried, almost distressed.

"Certainly."

"Your ears are lacking symmetry." The fluff drifted closer, and Fox felt something warm and perhaps fuzzy touch the ragged edges of his damaged ear. "Why do you have unrepaired damage?"

Fox paused, lifting a hand to said ear without thinking about it, looking at the fluff. "It's a long story that I don't feel like getting into. It was stitched off to prevent blood loss but there wasn't anything else they could do."

"Your people can't replace the lost tissue?" The warm fuzzy feeling moved to his whole ear, Fox turned his head to keep track of the fluff's movements.

"Well, we can to some degree… my people call it reconstructive surgery. The thing is, ears like mine are so delicately built that it isn't worth it." He paused, making a few connections. "Ah, this fits in with your complaint about broken things, doesn't it?"

"In a sense." The fluff moved around in front of him then startled backwards when Hope lifted her arms toward the alien and requested "up!" in an insistent tone. Fox picked her up instead. "My people enjoy talking to other people, but the hardest thing for us is the idea that there are races that cannot repair damage as necessary. To us it seems like a very poor design."

"Well, I certainly have a hard time arguing that." Fox grinned in spite of himself. "Some of the scientists from my world were discussing trying to weed out the more erroneous 'errors', but others screamed 'eugenics' so here we are."

"I have a suspicion that the medical technology of my people will be very useful to yours."

Fox saw Jesse look up in the background, and decided that wasn't his subject to broach. "Probably. Either way, I wouldn't get this fixed. Call it a reminder of poor choices made, and not to make them again." Hope leaned forward in his arms, making a cheerful grab for the fluff, who wisely stayed out of range.

"I'm afraid I don't understand. Keeping a damaged body part? That seems unwise."

"It isn't impeding me." Fox shrugged. "What else were you wanting to ask?"

"Actually, I was similarly curious about one of your friends. I'm afraid I don't have designations for all of your people… Similar overall build, grey tone body fur, obviously fake eye?"

"Wolf O'Donnel. And yes, he's not in very good shape. My fault, I'm afraid." Fox shook his head.

"Your fault? What did you do? If I am sensing minerals correctly a good proportion of his body is artificial!" The fluff's form wavered, going spiky, color and tone flickering.

"Whoa, hey. Relax." Fox leaned back from the fluff. "Not very long before our people evacuated our system, we had a war. It was extensive. My group fought in it. At the time, Wolf was on the other side. I shot him down in combat. I didn't know until months later what the resulting crash did to him. He told me he actually died and that everything he has that's artificial, he lost. We're good friends now."

The fluff didn't seem to know what to think, finally going off in its own language for several moments. Drek replied in kind, leaving Fox to look back and forth between them, uncertain what was going on.

"They're accusing you and the doctors that did that to him of barbarism." Jesse supplied in Lylatian, walking over. "I can't speak the language but I can understand it."

"I'll be the first to admit that the war was horrible, but it was also years ago. I like to think we're moving on." Fox replied in Lylatian. "But really, without all the artificial support Wolf would be dead. I'm not sure how you can blame the doctors."

Jesse looked back and forth between the two fluffs, listening to the chatter between the two. "It's mainly the AI in his head. They're disturbed by it."

"I think Wolf is disturbed by it most of the time so they can join him in being disturbed."

"I think I'm going to have to conclude that it may take a long time for our people to understand yours." Six said in Galaxy common, sounding a bit calmer. "Do you think your friend would be willing to discuss better replacements? At least so he doesn't … click… when pumping bodily fluids."

Fox blinked, setting Hope down again. "You can try but he might not agree."

"I'm departing for the time being, I will see you again when our ship designers arrive." The fluff bobbed in mid air, and proceeded for the door.

"That was weird." Fox shook his head. "Clicks?"

"Yeah, he does. Wolf's heart is artificial, remember? The clicking is the valves opening and shutting." Jesse replied. "He doesn't have a conventional heartbeat."

"Well, that's sure to visit me in nightmares. Poor guy." Fox looked at Drek, who was still floating at a respectful distance. "We aren't machines to be repaired, you know."

"Whoever repaired your friend disagrees." Drek replied.

Jesse shook his head, returning to his reading. Fox let Hope tow him to the edge of the water and sat down, watching her splash at the edge of the pool, mind far away.

Later that day, everyone had gathered back up again, taking turns putting the laundry through. Everyone sort of understood the alien laundry machine, as much as they could. You loaded similar colors in one end, and got dry clean clothes out the other about an hour later. Clean clothes with buttons reattached, Falco had remarked in bewilderment. Everyone else had decided it wasn't worth asking about.

Fox passed on the message from Six about the ETA for the ship designers as well as the production platform, and introduced Drek, to mixed reactions from the crew. Katt asked him if he could stick to common areas, and the fluff peacefully agreed to that.

Beyond that, it was just waiting for things to move on. Slippy had a list of changes to consider, and said that if they were smart they'd start emptying private quarters so they could all be revised. Everyone else nodded, though they all knew that was quite a bit of stuff. All books could be secured in the den, all exercise equipment secured in the weight room, everything else would probably have to come off the ship.

Beyond that, it was a quiet night. Which ended up being a good thing, because after that things got busy.

It was shortly after lunch when the crop of ship designers were delivered by a cheerful Gerak and M'ril, and a stonily silent Six. Three Rinaldi designers, two fluffs, and four Vun. Slippy nearly nerdgasmed on the spot, Jesse only managed not to because of all the information crammed into his head. Further down the hall from the dining room another set of doors opened up, which turned out to be a large conference room, one wall of which was dark blue and glowing faintly.

"It's a whiteboard." Jesse explained to those leaning in the door and giving the room the critical eye before leaving the techs to their business. "Write with a finger, erase with the palm of your hand."

"Hope figured that out." Fox replied, entering the room to retrieve the little girl, who had left a line of white handprints along the bottom of the wall. Hope yowled in protest, managing to leave more handprints as he walked back by it. "I assume if you come up with anything we'll be told about it."

"Yup. When we get to the good stuff we'll bring you in, Fox." Slippy said.

"Right. What am I supposed to do in the mean time?" He complained once out of the room, shutting the door behind him. "You guys won't even let me fold the damn laundry!"

"Fox. You nearly starved yourself." Falco said in a tone implying he was talking to an idiot. "We tried to make you eat more. You wouldn't. If you'd gone another week you'd have been on IVs and probably not able to handle solids. You're lucky I'm letting you walk around of your own power."

Fox scowled. "You're an asshole."

"And you've got a martyr complex. You don't get to do any physical labor until you gain at least twenty pounds back."

Fox shifted Hope to be supported with one arm and wove the other around in frustration. "If you don't let me do any work I'm just going to gain fat!"

"Apparently someone isn't aware of how recovery from starvation works." Wolf said, pinching Fox's whole ear and dragging him toward the kitchen. "Come on, sunshine, you're carb loading some more while I explain it to you."

Fox pouted, grabbing Fara as they passed her. "Don't you dare let me suffer this alone." She only laughed, taking his hand and walking with him.

Over the next several days, the group didn't see much of Jesse and Slippy except briefly at meals. The ship designers were there during basically all daylight hours, and when the group saw them they always seemed excited or pleased about something. Generally the sounds of debating could be heard coming from the meeting room, but what exactly was going on was up in the air. The second day Slippy towed ROB into the meeting as well, which seemed sensible to everyone else.

The rest of the crew ended up split between multiple tasks. Most ended up doing raw physical labor, emptying out the private quarters on the Great Fox. Wolf usually stayed at the consulate, tasked with the job of keeping everyone fed, which he obviously enjoyed anyway. Fox, much to his disgust, was barred from doing much of anything but sleeping and eating. However, the second day the design team was there he found the shivers of weakness had started leaving his arms and legs, and that the chills he got at night were starting to fade. He compensated by doing yoga and tai chi while keeping an eye on Hope when she was napping, finding it a relief to stretch his abused muscles.

After four days of apparently pitched debate, Slippy wandered out of the meeting room to the common room, finding most of the group there like usual. "I think we've got something to show you."

The meeting room was wallpapered in printouts, the interactive wall currently displaying a basic schematic of the Great Fox. Quite a bit of computer equipment had been jacked into the walls, and the engineers stood at the back of the room as everyone else wandered in, Fox taking the lead, looking at the display then at Slippy, who was apparently speaking for the group. "Alright, give it to us in layman's terms."

"Layman's terms, well.." Slippy looked at Jesse, who was sitting on the floor at a keyboard of some sort. Jesse took the cue and started typing, the Great Fox schematic was shuffled off to the side, another design coming up. "About half again as large in terms of displacement but about double the living space due to some systems compacting down. Sturdier design, not as many break points. Heavier armor, more defensive cannons, bigger engine."

The new design was an obvious departure from the body style of the current Great Fox. The bridge had dropped to extend straight forward from the body, the neckline flowing back into a streamlined body. Instead of four equal stabilizers, the body flowed into two larger wings, with four smaller stabilizers, two on the back of the ship, two on the belly. The topside dock door was gone, all dock and launch abilities were now on the belly of the ship. Gone was the obvious engine plant, the ship instead blunted off, the engines recessed into the body and no longer as obvious a target. Two main forward-facing cannons remained, but also obvious were multiple small gun emplacements.

"At first glance, seems like an easier design to defend." Fox walked over to the screen, looking at it. "So, I don't hate it on first glance. Make me love it."

Slippy laughed. "Alright, so that's the way it's going to be eh?"

"Considering you're going to basically dissolve my ship to make this, damn right it is." Fox snorted.

"Alright, then." He stepped over and tapped the screen, bringing up more displays. "The engine plant is Vun design melded with the current design. There are some serious ups to the current power plant the Great Fox has, but it's just not big enough. So it's been redesigned and sized up for this, and loaded up with extra battery and generation capacity. We should never run into a low power situation again, and it's much easier to refuel."

"Fast?"

Slippy grinned at him. "Damn fast. Has a different warp drive too, I'll give you the skinny on that later if you want it." He wove away the engine display and brought up something else. "There's enough launch capacity for sixteen fighters, which I thought you'd appreciate. I'll show you the Arwing 2.0 in a minute. The defensive weaponry is all changed out, fluff designed stuff. Without getting into physics or anything, short version is, they're plasma cannons. Power from the engines is converted to ammo for the guns, so as long as we have engines up, we have guns. You could fire these things for hours straight and not exceed the capacity of the power planet, and they're guaranteed to do some damage to anything they run across. The main cannons are practically edging into scorched earth territory."

Fox nodded approvingly. Everyone else was just listening, letting him take control of this. "Ok, I'm curious, can you turn the image to face forward?" Once it had, he pointed. "What are these hatches on the main wings?"

"I was wondering if you'd notice that. Jesse, this is more your thing."

Jesse nodded, grinning. "That's something I've been working on with the Rinaldi. That's a combination defense and offense. Those are hatches for drone launching."

"Drones." Fox repeated, voice flat.

"Yeah, yeah, I know the only drones that you've had on board were big bulky scouting things but hear me out on this." Jesse stood and went to the screen, bringing up displays. Slippy stepped back so he had more room. "There's a few different types of them and they're stored up in the wings. The design accounts for the space they take up, and they should be fairly simple to repair or replace."

"Alright, so what do they do? How autonomous are they? How many are we talking here?"

"Basic hive mind behaviors slaved to control boards on the bridge, or to ROB, whichever. There are two hundred of them, and they're task specific. Some are geared for ship repair, so the Great Fox it self can go under repair without returning to a planet or station. Others project temporary shields, so if we're really up what creek we have an extra layer of defense. The majority is meant for attacking and crippling large ships, and they are insidious."

Fox frowned, looking at the three bug-like designs now displayed. "How big are these things?"

"You could carry most of them under your arm fairly easily. Only downside is, they have small engine plants, so anything they do has to be done within visual range of the ship." Jesse looked at him and saw Fox's expression. "Yeah, I know you aren't big on unmanned craft but these things could be useful, if anything just for the ability to self-repair on the fly."

"Yeah I do concede that point, but we'd need someone on the bridge coordinating these things with anyone out in the field full time." Fox scratched his head.

"I sort of figured that'd be my job." Jesse replied a bit apprehensively. "Me and someone else maybe."

"Alright then. Show me the interior of this beast. How the hell did you expand the engines but still leave us more room?"

"Better air and water systems." Slippy said, taking back over. "Yeah, we're carrying more water but the filtration system isn't as bulky, same for the air filtration systems. We were also able to streamline piping and air ducts, but in the process we're losing the locker room in exchange for every private room having its own small bathroom with a really good shower. That means we have two main water runs instead of piping going everywhere."

"I guess we can live with that." Fox looked at everyone else, who didn't put up a protest, all listening intently. "The bridge staying the same?"

"As we can keep it, a lot of the consols have to be gutted out and replaced to synch up with everything. The look and layout will be the same, that's about it."

"Works for me. Galley, crew quarters?"

"Galley is getting a bigger eating area and more storage all around. Crew quarters are expanding a bit and getting more built in storage. You're getting some official captain's quarters with another room attached for Hope, everyone else has similar-sized quarters. Seven rooms on one side of the hallway, eight on the other. We're planning on more people than we have, if we expand anymore than that, we should ponder a second ship."

"I don't need captain's quarters." Fox replied peevishly.

"You're getting them anyway. Since we lost a lot of used square footage by taking out the locker room, we're moving the weight room up slightly along the hallway and dropping in a small armory about half the size the locker room was. The rest of the square footage is parceled off for maintenance systems. Laundry is being gutted and we're grabbing a Vun laundry system." Slippy rolled the ship over on the design and brought up the main bay. "Instead of everyone parking like a herd of damn cats, the arwings are now rack launched and landed. Upside to this is regimented docking and being at reasonable speed upon launch, downside is we now have racks to maintain. We're ditching the Blue Marine and current Landmaster to the scrap pile, as well as your Wolfen, sorry Wolf. Fara, your shuttle has its own rack." He shoved the entire ship display over on the screen and brought up the arwing design. "Old design… new design. Still g-diffuser based, added a layer of heat deflection and the main guns are now plasma tech as well. Engine plants got expanded as well. I look forward to seeing what you can do with this thing Fox. That said, the old arwings are all going to scrap and we're getting everyone one of the 2.0 designs."

"Not one for sentimentality, are you?" Fox finally asked, stunned.

"Nope. This is my thing, Fox. Trust me."

There was a long silence, then everyone started talking at once, crowding to the wall screen, everyone wanting to see parts of the design again. Fox faded back and watched it all happen, standing by the engineers, who all looked proud. One of the Rinaldi opened a small box and offered him what looked like a white smooth poker chip, he refused on the excuse that he wasn't sure what it was or what it'd do to him. The Rinaldi, who had orangish-red body fur and silver eyes, shrugged and passed the box along to its compatriots.

"This project has been a delight to work on, Commander McCloud." The Rinaldi offered, eating one of the white chips. "It's a good thing, combining so much technology. A good exercise and a good practical study."

"Glad you think so, I just want it to be livable and work." Fox replied.

"Trust us, it will be that." The Rinaldi laced one set of hands together, tapping the fingers on the other set together. "To that end, we were discussing if you'd allow one of ours into your crew to attend the drones. Your two technicians are good, but they're going to have their schedules full with all this new equipment."

"I'm fine with the idea. You can never have enough guns, money, or maintenance personnel."

This drew a laugh. "Well put!"

He smiled a touch, taking a seat on one of the cushions at the low slung table, watching everyone else argue about the new designs. Complaints seemed to run from the need for better lighting in the private quarters to suggestions on improving the cockpit design of the arwings.

Slippy managed to get out of the discussion, sitting down across the table from Fox. "What do you think?"

He shrugged. "I trust you and I like what I see."

He grinned. "Good to hear. Apparently our production platform is en route so we need to get everything we need to off the Great Fox by tomorrow night."

"You ok with the idea of us getting a Rinaldi technician?"

Slippy looked surprised. "Sure. Once we get the ship empty I want to remote it into geosynchronous orbit, alright? Once there and rendezvousing with the production platform, I'll cue the start of the information dump."

"Works for me. Good job, man."

"Hey, this is what I live for."

"So, what do you think, Commander McCloud?" Gerak asked, head tilting sideways ninety degrees in a remarkably owl-like expression of puzzlement. Both were standing in the common room the day after the design was more or less formalized. Everyone else was gone to hurriedly try to get the Great Fox emptied, even Wolf going with, leaving Fox and Hope alone at the consulate. Hope was sitting by the pool splashing in the water, Fox was stretching, watching her, and listening to Gerak. "I've been told the ship design was met with approval."

"Indeed. Thank you for all the help, Leader Gerak."

"It's a trifling." The Vun admitted. "Considering what we're getting in return. Not only are we getting your medical data, we also got a lot of information about your ship technology without even asking for it."

Fox grunted, coming out of a cobra stretch and coming up sunrise, shifting into a warrior-two pose, hating himself for dropping yoga for as long as he did. Gerak turned his head the other way, a series of confused peeps escaping his chest. "Well, if that's the case, would you be interested in perhaps doing me a few personal favors? No connection to the deal, just a few things for me."

The Vun tucked his hands into the pockets of his robe. "I find it interesting that you bring this up when no one else is here."

"Very much on purpose I assure you. It's just a few minor things, and a suggestion for when and if you do send diplomats to New Lylat." Fox switched sides on the stretch.

"You've intrigued me. I'm listening."

"They brought a storage cube thing out to the tarmac, that's what let us get everything offloaded." Falco said, going limp on the floor next to the waterfall pool, having nicked a cushion from the dining room. "I never realized how much STUFF we have. Seriously, man. I think we grabbed as much as we could before evacuation."

"I know we did." Fox replied, sitting by him with Hope asleep in his lap, feeling extremely pleased with himself. "What else could we do but cling to the things familiar to us?"

Falco lifted his head and looked at him. "You're in a mood."

Fox offered him a half-smile, then looked toward the door with a grin when Fara came in, hauling a black case. "Hey baby. What'd you grab?"

"I found this in the back of the closet and knew you'd want to keep it, decided to bring it back here with us. I mean, I know what it is but I've never seen it." She replied, hauling it over.

"Fox. That's James' guitar, isn't it?" Peppy said, slowly following. "You didn't tell me you kept it."

Fox sighed, taking the guitar case from Fara and setting it on the ground next to him carefully, popping the catches. "Before we left, I went through my apartment and my storage units… trying to find things that meant the most, that I could connect to my dad. Anything that could connect to him. This was the most obvious, even for its bulk. I bought all the extra strings I could from several guitar stores in the city, and really haven't touched it since."

"Do you play?" Fara asked curiously. Others were drifting in tiredly, gathering to sit on the ground by the waterfall. Slippy took off his shirt and dove into the water, coming up several minutes later in a fashion where only his eyes showed.

"No. I mean, well sort of. Not compared to my dad. I really wish you could have met him." Fox shook his head, gently displacing Hope from his lap and passing her to Fara, then opening the guitar case.

"That was worth a lot before it became the last of its kind." Wolf said, crouching on his toes by Fox and looking at the instrument. "A twelve string electric acoustic? Was your old man any good?"

"Yeah, he was… hey, wait!" Fox protested when Wolf abruptly sat down, reaching forward and picking up the guitar nimbly, moving to hold it comfortably in his lap. "Be careful."

"It's out of tune." Wolf replied, flicking the strings and drawing a discordant twanging, turning the knobs and putting it back into tune, one ear cocked.

"You play?"

"Yes, a six string, a long time ago."

Fox relaxed slowly, listening to the sounds of the guitar being tuned, offering Fara a slow happy smile. She smiled back, surprised. "I spoke to Gerak today while you were all working on the Great Fox."

"Oh?"

"When he sends diplomats, he's also going to send tankers of water to New Lylat. Nothing like a little leverage eh?"

This got a round of surprised gapes and a few laughs, Fara punching his shoulder. "You're very evil when it comes to negotiation, Fox."

"Hey, I try."

Fox leaned on one of the Vun floating cars, watching the Great Fox slowly lift and tilt up, landing gear coming up as it pressed skyward, engines a dull roar as it disappeared from view. Pacing it from a reasonable distance was a little Rinaldi shuttle, where Slippy, ROB, and Jesse were remotely commanding the old cruiser into orbit to be taken apart and put back together again. It had been decided that they'd be overseeing the construction on the production platform, and it was estimated that it'd take twenty-four to thirty-six hours to complete all the changes.

"Information transfer has started." Gerak said, standing next to him. "Our agreement is officially going ahead as planned."

"Indeed. Those favors I asked?"

"Oh, all taken care of." Gerak looked at him, tilting his head. "I'd like to officiate over the one, if you'd allow it."

"I'd be honored. Thank you for doing this for me."

"Oh no! I'm delighted."

"Slippy, Jesse, and ROB are coming back down apparently. There's nothing else for them to oversee, now it's just the fluffs double-checking all their work, then the Vun moving the supplies in." Miyu said, looking around the common room. After what seemed like an overly long vacation, the group was getting ready to leave. The massive amount of laundry that had been done had been wrangled into neat stacks in rolling bins lined up near the door. "Does this all seem really surreal to anyone else?"

"I'm used to the insanity of this group, and yes it does." Peppy replied. "Feels like we've been out of the saddle for too long."

"I agree." Fox said, walking into the room in full uniform minus sidearm. "Well, survey says?"

"You're looking better but you still need to gain weight." Katt replied.

"Good to know." He grinned, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"You seem really… smug… about something." Falco finally said, lifting an eyebrow. "What the hell did you do? You've been hiding something the last few days, I know it."

"Oh, you can wait a little while longer."

"What did you do?" Fara asked.

"Good things. You'll find out soon enough."

Not long after that, Jesse strode in with a huge grin on his face, Slippy and ROB following, Slippy looking a bit freaked out. "Hi guys. She's done, but it'll be a good six hours before she comes back down to get us." Jesse's voice came out lower, squarely in a tenor range, and overwhelmingly happy. "Oh and before you ask, check this out!" That said, he took off his shirt and put his hands on his hips, grinning.

Everyone gaped. The whole team knew (Miyu and Faye had been let in on it carefully) that Jesse was transgender, born a male brain into a female body, and had been completely pre-op. Now however, he stood bare waist up, showing off a flat chest and a blatantly obvious lack of curves everywhere else.

"How the hell?" Wolf asked, knowing full well that this opened up a spectacular can of worms for him.

"I was in the entity, so are some of the fluffs, the fluffs ability to move atomic scale elements means they can move genetics and change entire body structure." Jesse grinned, shirt draping across the back of his neck. "Tada, I'm a boy!"

"Well, that seems like an appropriate cap to this long trip doesn't it?" Falco said, blank voiced.

"Actually it isn't over yet." Fox replied.

"What are you hiding?!"

The door opened again, and Gerak came in with another Vun, who was carrying a box. "Well, how convenient that you're all here!" He said after a moment, eyes showing pleasant surprise. "That does make it easier doesn't it?"

"Makes what easier?" Jesse wanted to know, pulling his shirt back on.

Fox meanwhile walked forward to meet the two Vun. "Thank you for doing this for me Gerak."

"Oh no, my pleasure." Gerak fished a small flat black case out of the box and held it carefully, gesturing for Fox to talk the box. Fox did so, holding it under one arm and turning back to the crew.

"Well, now that you're all melting in frustration, I asked Gerak to do a few things for me." Fox looked into the box, shuffling around in it with his other hand. "First off all, our staff has changed a bit since our last combat situation and our equipment just radically changed, so I have a few rank changes to dole out. Faye, Miyu, come here will you please?" Both girls looked at each other and walked over toward him slowly, Fox ended up setting the box down and pulling out two silver jackets, offering one to each of them. "Probationary pilots, you understand, but this makes you official. Welcome to Star Fox."

"Oh my god!" Faye blurted, taking her jacket and holding to her chest, stunned. Miyu took hers and shrugged into it, smiling when she saw a name patch already on. "I didn't think you were serious."

"Oh, not hardly. Next up, Jesse and Fara."

Fara handed Hope to Wolf and walked up as Jesse did. "You didn't tell me any of this, hun."

"Of course not, I wanted this all to be a surprise." Fox smiled a bit. "Now, don't kill me, alright?" He dipped back into the box, coming out with two more jackets. "Welcome to the team officially, Jesse. Consider yourself ship personnel, specifically, drone control." He passed off the jacket, Jesse shrugged into it and was stunned to find it fit him right. "Fara, I know you're a pilot officially and please don't think I'm stripping your wings. You're just the only other member with any experience with drones, so I'd like you to take co-command of drone control until some of the rest of us train. Once that's done we'll switch the station out as need be." He offered the jacket, Fara took it and put it on, looking surprised. "One more! Wolf, come here please."

Wolf had both eyebrows up at this point, walking forward and trading Hope back off to Fara with minor difficulty, as she was holding onto his shirt. "Are you giving me my wings back?"

"Oh, I'm going one better." Fox folded his arms, tilting his head at Wolf. "See, I've been thinking about this. We've gone from being primarily fighter based to having fighters, a cruiser capable of combat, and drones. I'm a wing commander, and I admit that command is actually my weakest point, so I'm not even going to try to take all of that on at once, and expecting ROB to run the Great Fox and all its defenses as well as coordinate with the drones just seems a bit ungainly." He dipped into the box one last time then kicked the empty box aside. "So, you're getting a jacket and a hat, and a new rank. Welcome aboard, Helm Commander O'Donnel." As he said this, he offered forward another silver flight jacket and an appropriate hat.

"Holy shit!" Falco blurted, a sentiment echoed around the room.

"Do you find my decision inappropriate?" Fox lifted an eyebrow at them. Wolf was standing still, holding the jacket and looking at the hat, stunned. "Wolf has experience with command, and more battle experience than I do. And," He looked back to Wolf, "I trust you to understand that it's my ship but you take command when battlestations are announced."

Wolf nodded slowly, putting the hat on then the jacket. "I'm honored."

Fox nodded, smiling, and looked at Katt. "I would have gotten a jacket for you as well but I wasn't sure of your status with New Lylat's military, so I thought I should hold off until after I'm clear on that."

"No, it's fine." Katt said, surprised. "I'm fine with being an honorary member for now."

"This is what you've been scheming about?" Peppy asked, eyebrows up.

"Well, yes. Though there is one more thing." Fox stepped over to Fara and took Hope, airplaning her above his head and drawing a squeal of joy as well as a cheerful cry of 'Daddeee!' "Hi sweetie! I need you to go see uncle Peppy for a few ok?" That said he cheerfully 'flew' her over to Peppy and held her out. "Hold my kid for a moment." Toddler juggling complete, he went back to Fara, subduing himself. "So, uh… we haven't really talked about this recently but I'm really tired of waiting…"

"Babe, you have utterly lost me. I have no idea where you're going with this." Fara replied, shaking her head with a smile. "I guess getting left here by yourself or near it constantly gave you time to think, eh?"

"Oh, I've been thinking for the last few months, it just took a lot of help to get things in proper order." Fox smiled and dropped to his knees, taking both her hands and holding them. "Will you marry me?"

Fara jumped, staring down at him, squeezing his hands. The total lack of warning had left her completely off guard, and she looked at him for a long moment. He was different, definitely different from when they'd first met. He'd grown, but had never stopped being devoted to a fault… a fact proven by his damaged ear and recovering body. Everyone else seemed to be having a burst of merriment at this, having all knew it was coming sooner or later and not all that surprised that Fox chose to drop it from nowhere. "Of course I will."

He grinned and stood, standing and pulling her close, holding her hands cupped gently against his chest. "Right now?"

"You have been a busy boy." She replied, eyes wide.

"Is that a yes?" Gerak wanted to know, who had been keeping reasonable track of events even if all of this had been spoken in Lylatian. The aide who had come with him had rounded up a pair of sitting cushions, and he was standing next to them holding the box.

Fara laughed in spite of herself, leaning into Fox. "Yes, that's a yes."

"Fox has generously allowed me to officiate this proceeding." He looked at the rest of the team, some of which were slowly clapping in approval, a few of which were doing little victory jigs. "You're all welcome to observe if you can carry yourselves with proper decorum." This comment brought silence back to the room except for Hope's cheerful chatter, and he sighed and looked back to Fox and Fara. "Could you sit please?" Both moved so sit on the cushions in front of Gerak, hands laced together. "I'm not sure what religions your people have, but we Vun believe in paths." The Vun Leader's voice shifted, becoming an easy rolling tone, lowest set of eyes shutting. "We believe there are many paths that one can take in life, and though one will walk along many through our years, the path is always our own. We alone have true control over the outcomes of our life, and if we do well, over our next life. We believe life does not end, merely changes bodies and destinations." He tilted his head, seeing he was being listened to. "The choice to pair bond to someone is not taken lightly. It is not a … legal proceeding among our people, it is purely a personal choice. It is a decision that indicates that one is willing to walk the same path as the other one, for as long as their paths continue, and if we are truly lucky, to walk together in our next life as well." He paused, considering how to continue the ceremony. There were no parents to step forward, no Circle documentation to sign indicating the formation of a new family name. "I have not known you for very long, but it seems to me that you have both weathered the hardest possible tests of a pair bond." He finally said, opening his lower set of eyes again. "So perhaps, this is mere formality, but sometimes formality is the best way to declare the start of a new life. So, I ask of you both, will you walk together in peace and in strife, support each other when you are weak, and let no one break the bond you have forged by your decision alone?"

Fox tightened his grip on Fara's hand without thinking about it. "Yes."

Fara nodded, surprised to feel her heart thundering. "Yes, I will."

"Then little else needs to be said. You may have noticed some of our people wearing this." The Vun pushed up one of the sleeves of his robe, revealing a crystal band bracelet that circled his right wrist, glowing and shimmering in rainbows when the light hit it. "No two pairs are alike. They are made together, and destroyed together. They are our indication of the taking of a pair bond, so others know not to bother to make silly advances." He let his sleeve fall back, shifting the box to face Fox and Fara and opening it, revealing two of the bracelets sitting on a black cloth. "Both of you, take one and put it on your right wrist, then touch the bracelets, and know that you don't walk alone from this day until your last."

Fox quirked an eyebrow in spite of himself. He hadn't been certain what a Vun marriage ceremony was exactly, he had only asked Gerak if the Vun had something similar and if one could be held for him and Fara. In a way, he liked this better than any Lylatian wedding he'd seen. There was no huge expenditure or standing on ceremony. This was simple and felt real. After a moment he let go of Fara's hand and picked up the bracelet as she picked up hers, putting it on, honestly surprised it fit. It was actually loose on his wrist, and was dull, not picking up the light. He looked at Fara, puzzled, and saw that she'd also noticed the difference between theirs and Gerak's. After a moment she shrugged and held out her right hand toward him, and he did the same, lacing their fingers together, the bracelets clicking against each other. Both bracelets lit up in a lightshow and changed as they watched, widening and tightening to become band bracelets around their wrists, shimmering in the light.

"What are these made out of?" Fara asked, looking at Gerak.

The Vun's eyes crinkled. "It does not matter. They are yours, that color pattern and intensity is particular to you."

"Thank you Gerak. I realize this was kind of an odd request." Fox said, fiddling with his bracelet and surprised to find it warm, almost hot to the touch.

"Oh no, Commander McCloud. My pleasure." He watched the two Lylatians get up, both fiddling with their bracelets. That was normal, he supposed, it had taken him a while to get used to its weight as well. "Be happy. That said, I am sure I will see more of you in the future. Now, I do hope you will excuse me… The diplomat that my people are sending to New Lylat is actually on Party Circle, and I must speak to him before he departs." He bowed slightly, tucking the empty box under his arm and cheerfully leaving the building, his aide in step behind him.

"Well, this is definitely more interesting than a wedding ring." Fara said, looking at her bracelet. "A little warning would have been nice, you ass!"

"Nah! I liked the surprise on your face." Fox laughed and hugged her from behind, arms around her shoulders and jaw on her shoulder, looking at everyone else. "You approve?"

"I might get married here. I really liked that." Wolf replied, stepping over to give both a hug and cuff Fox's shoulder affectionately. "So, once we're in space again, where to first? I'm sure there's work out there."

Fox quirked a smile. "I have some ideas about that."


	5. Chapter Four: Work

Chapter Four: Work

"Well, that took longer than I figured it would." Fox said, watching Falco and Wolf haul in the last of the boxes of stuff they'd removed from the Great Fox only days ago, and figure out what rooms it went to. He was still barred from doing any physical labor, so while everyone else ran around getting possessions to proper rooms and helping supply the kitchen, Fox stood off to the side with Hope in his arms.

"Yeah, but at least everything's set up now." Katt said, standing by him, hands in her pockets. "Everyone will have to get their stuff arranged, but at least everything's in the right rooms."

"This is true." Fox looked around the docking bay again.

The outer hull of the redesigned Great Fox and arwings was a deep blue that was almost black, with next to no gloss to it. Camouflage, Slippy had said that generally speaking it was harder to spot dark objects in space than light ones. In sharp contrast, the interior of the Great Fox was a very pale grey, almost a pearlescent white, as was most of the installed gear. The dark-colored arwings almost loomed in the bay on their dock clamps, drawing the eye. They were, he conceded, very beautiful, and he did look forward to flying one.

"Commander McCloud?"

Fox turned toward the voice, walking to the top of the docking bay ramp, and saw M'ril walking up it, another Rinaldi close behind him. Said new Rinaldi was dragging what appeared to be a wheeled box. "Hello Diplomat M'ril. You're lucky you caught us, another half an hour and we would have launched."

"Yes, very lucky that I did. Unfortunately one of our transports was running late, hence the lateness of our arrival." M'ril reached back with two arms and marshaled the other Rinaldi forward. "This is Shar'lai, she's volunteered to join your crew to support the drones."

Fox blinked and cocked his head to one side, shifting his daughter to sit on one of his hips. The new Rinaldi looked horribly uncomfortable to be where she was, though Fox supposed if he was being displayed to an alien he wouldn't be happy either. She was smaller than M'ril, with dense body fuzz of a warm tan color and pale green eyes. She also was the first Rinaldi Fox had ever seen wearing a stitch, in what appeared to be a set of overalls with a lot of pockets. "Pleased to meet you, Shar'lai."

Shar'lai headbobbed slowly. "You must be Commander McCloud?"

"Yes indeed. Thank you for joining us, always good to have more technical expertise around." This earned him a glad look. "We'll be lifting soon, would you like to be shown to your quarters?"

"Yes please."

M'ril clasped Shar'lai's shoulders and said something in Rinaldi, getting another nod, then turned back to Fox. "You will of course not be a stranger."

"Of course." Fox saluted.

M'ril saluted back after a moment, then turned and left, walking easily down the ramp.

"Well, follow me, I'll show you to the room you can use. With any luck I'll be able to introduce you to the other techs along the way."

Shar'lai sat on the bed in the room, taking slow stock of it, considering.

She hadn't really thought this out. She was a drone tech by profession, having a world of knowledge about the control, construction, and maintenance of them. When the designers of this combined-technology ship had decided to put a drone system in, it had been the company she worked for that had been called. When her boss asked if anyone would be willing to go to the ship being built and help maintain the system, and teach the crew of the ship about it. She'd jumped at the chance, it had seemed like a dream. Four races combining their tech into one ship? It was rare that two races truly collaborated on a design. More often they tried to rip each other off, with poor success.

Now, here she was.

The room was of decent size, not small but not large either, nothing to spare. There was little furniture, only a desk and a chair. The walls opened up to reveal a good amount of built-in storage, and there was more above and below the built-in bed. A door opened into a private bathroom, the bathing facilities within seemed a combination of a Rekuva steam shower and the water-based shower of the Lylatians.

The room was not personal, in fact right now it felt somewhat sterile, but it was more than enough for her. She'd already put away what little she'd brought with her, only her hand-held computer was at hand. She'd already put the ship layout on it, now it was just walking around to get a feel for it, finding the drone panels and getting familiar with them. Two hundred drones was actually a lot for a ship this size, it was a big hive to take care of too. She would be busy.

A knock at the door caught her attention, she tucked her hand-held computer into one of her pockets and slid off the bed, walking over to the door and opening it. One of the Lylatian females stood there, looking back. "Yes?"

"We're about to lift off, Fox thought you may want to be on the bridge during it."

"Oh, yes, lead the way." She stepped out of the room, closing the door behind her and following the Lylatian down the pale corridor. "What is your name?"

"Lynx, Miyu Lynx."

"Combat pilot?"

"Yes."

The walk took a few minutes, Shar'lai took her computer back up and brought up the ship's layout, trying to synch it up with where she was as they walked. A few sets of pressure doors later and they stood on the oval bridge, looking out the broad viewglass.

Fox spun his command chair idly, smiling at Miyu. "Thank you kindly."

"No problem." She smiled, leaving the bridge in favor of the observation deck.

"Shar'lai right?" Fara said, standing and walking over to the Rinaldi. "I'm Fara McCloud, Jesse and I are going to be drone control."

"Oh! Well, we will be talking a lot then." Shar'lai nodded to her, then to Jesse, who was standing leaning on the control panels. Jesse lifted a fist to his heart in a Rinaldi salute, or as best as he could do only having one arm on that side. "Is there a seat I can strap into?"

A few minutes later everyone was strapped in, and Fox turned his seat back, looking at ROB and Wolf, who was the only one not strapped in. "Well, consider this your first test. Get us into geosynchronous orbit."

Wolf saluted, turning to Slippy. "This being our first start since renovation, I think you should bring up our engine plants this time. Start her up and bring her to a hundred percent, then trade her off to ROB for launch control."

"You got it." Slippy's hands flitted between several touch screens, the old routine slightly changed, and the ship jolted slightly, the old familiar bone-deep hum starting as the reactor slowly came up. Revised and on totally new fuel, it was slow to start, but once started it came quickly and ably to full power. Once he had checked all the readouts, he moved more sliders, full control bouncing over to ROB's terminals. Everyone felt the engines light off at Wolf's gesture, the big ship sealing up and lifting off the ground, nose coming up as the engines came to full power. Even with g-diffuser tech still in operation, the force of the sudden lunge toward space jolted everyone back in their seats, the landing gear coming up and the ship leaving Party Circle behind it in a blast of engine fire.

"Everything green?" Fox asked, glancing at the launch readouts. The Great Fox was going nearly straight up, rolled onto her back, but no one would have known it if they had walked around. The engines looked clear, artificial gravity was holding.

"Tell you in a minute." Slippy replied as the sunlight coming through the view glass dimmed, the Great Fox's nose dropping as the ship broke through the atmosphere and came into orbit, engines dropping to cruise power. "We're green. Clean launch."

Fox clapped his hands together, unstrapping and standing. "Nicely done."

"This is interesting, we've got five cruisers alongside." Jesse said. "Looks like three Vun supercarriers, and two Rinaldi ships, I'm not sure what designation."

"Well, if you don't know it, it must be obscure." Fox glanced toward Peppy. "Hail them, will you?"

"No need, they're hailing us. Putting them on overhead."

"Commander McCloud, we're happy to see the new craft is working out! I'm Nidar, the Vun Diplomat that will be going to Lylat."

"Pleased to meet you, Nidar. So what's with the hardware?" Fox asked, walking over to the viewglass and looking out. Even with the new expansion, the Great Fox was dwarfed alongside the alien ships. The Rinaldi ships were so big they practically defied description, damn near on scale with Lylat's evacuation carriers.

"The ship I'm on is a personnel carrier, there are ambassadors from the Rinaldi and the fluffs on board as well. The other two ships from my people are water tankers. We weren't sure how much water would be needed."

Fox lifted his eyebrows. "And the Rinaldi ships?"

"Colonization support vessels. Mind you, New Lylat isn't getting them on a whim. We were just getting ready to move out, we were wondering if you'd like to accompany us. Your presence could sooth any alarm your people have." The Vun's voice was cheerful.

"I'm fine with the idea, it'll give us a chance to test our new warp drives." Fox replied.

"Excellent, we'll send you our warp calculations." The radio clicked, and Peppy turned off the overhead.

"Alright, let's get into formation with them." Fox turned, pacing back to his seat.

"You just want to show this bird off to General Pepper." Fara grinned at him. Hope was in a carrier hanging off the back of her seat, fast asleep.

Fox grinned back. "Well, you can't blame me." He paused, looking at Shar'lai. "I have an odd question for you."

"Oh, er, certainly." She blinked, sitting so her four feet were tucked under her.

"In our old system, before evacuation, we had a system that connected all computer systems together, private and otherwise. Do the colonized systems in this galaxy have something similar?"

Fox sat back, sprawled in his command chair, eyes flicking between the screens. His command center was fairly mobile, he'd brought up all the monitors so he could see their displays without moving, all in touchscreen mode. And across them all, news broadcasts from around the Galaxy, every major race.

It was still a bit unreal to him, how many intelligent races there were, and they all had something like the news. Was 'freedom of the press' the same the universe over? He wasn't sure, but with Shar'lai's help he'd found nearly a dozen news shows currently in production. The languages varied, but ROB had been able to set up subtitles for him. He'd turned up the volume, and now was watching the shows, trying to get a feel for the political climate of the system. Falco had been right, things were on edge all over.

"I have no idea how you're getting information from all that."

He looked up and smiled at Fara, who was holding a steaming cup. "Coffee?" He asked hopefully.

"Whatever the Vun equivalent is, more a tea. Tastes kind of like apples and cinnamon." She passed off the mug, leaning on the back of his seat, looking at the screens and listening to the mess. The Great Fox was in warp, counting down to exiting at New Lylat.

"Good enough I guess." He took a drink of it, gesturing at the screen. "This is crazy. While we were being isolationists in New Lylat, all the alliances were falling apart. It looks like everyone is trying to turn on the Rekuva, who are not all that willing to let their allies go. The Rekuva apparently have the largest able military, so it's really tense."

"Any work opportunities in it?"

"Might be." Fox reached a hand over, bringing up another display. "This is Freelancer Network. Shar'lai showed it to me, I think it could be useful to us. It's like a contractor website for anything from cargo hauling to private police forces. Looks like most of the people on here are being thrown out of whack by the political issues. Once I have a better feeling for it, I'll explain it to everyone." He minimized the display, returning to his news perusing. "Once we get to New Lylat, I think we should shove off a ways from the planet and get some practice time under our belt. Flying in formation, drone control practice, working between fighters, drones, and the Great Fox. Maybe find some asteroids and play target practice."

"Sounds good to me." Wolf said, coming back onto the command deck. "I'm sure everyone else will agree, what with the new equipment."

"It'll also give us a chance to see Faye and Miyu in action." Fox said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "All I know about them is, they're pilots. I haven't even seen their files."

"It did catch us off-guard when you let them on board, but what the hell, more combat pilots is always a good thing. They'll learn." Fara gently combed her fingers through Fox's headstripe, prompting a low pleased murmur.

"How's our newest technician settling in?" Fox asked, glancing at Wolf.

"She's walking the ship, familiarizing herself with the layout. Slippy and Jesse are with her, which is good because Jesse is going to drive me nuts." Wolf rubbed the bridge of his muzzle, sighing. "Even though whatever the fluffs did to him was apparently a total body change, his brain wasn't prepared for the hormone change."

"So what should we be prepared for, more crying jags?"

"No, probably edgy and high-strung." Wolf shrugged. "When are we coming out of warp?"

"About another hour, our travel time is cut in half at least." Fox glanced at his screens, looking at readouts. "We'll be coming out a bit of a distance from the station, so they don't have cardiac arrest at our arrival."

"Sounds like a plan, I'll pass it along."

Shar'lai undid catches and opened a panel, smiling when the interior of the hive was exposed, the drones stirring when the light hit them. "See, there are several of these access panels throughout the ship that allow direct access to the drones."

"I was wondering about that." Jesse said, looking at the drones, which to him resembled wingless cicadas. "Can I look at one?"

Shar'lai took one of the drones off the rack and passed it to Jesse, who turned it over in his hands, studying how it was built. "I'm supposed to teach you how to maintain them, but with so many other new systems, I'm not sure how quickly we will manage such a thing."

"Well, unless you have a day set that you're leaving the crew, I'm not too worried about it." Slippy replied, watching Jesse handle the drone. Jesse's touch for robots was in full force, his fingers gently investigating joints and watching as the drone reacted to the touch. "I think Fox figured you'd assist us with maintenance in general and teach us as time allowed."

"Once I finish going through the ship schematics, I should be able to manage that easily. You two helped design this ship, yes?"

"Yeah, we did." Jesse said, hanging the drone back up on the rack then closing the access panel when Shar'lai moved to do so.

"Then it would be logical for you two to help me learn about the ship as I teach you about the drones."

"Makes sense to me." Slippy replied. "Though we'll be learning as we go too, we may have designed it but some of these systems are utterly new to us."

Shar'lai grinned. "Oh, but that is the fun part."

Slippy laughed. "I agree."

"General?"

Pepper looked up from the stack of less-than-optimistic reports at the aide, fighting the urge to sigh. "Yes?"

"We've got a massive energy signal approaching, looks like we've got company."

Pepper hefted himself to his feet, abandoning the reports for the more active part of the station's command deck, where everyone else was gathering, looking at the energy spike. "Any idea who it is? Anyone call us?"

"No sir. Looks like multiple ships, and they are big boomers."

"Great, and they're nearly here too." Pepper stared at the screen, then shook his head. "Well, let's wait and see who's coming to dinner."

"Sir?"

"Well, we can't contact them without knowing what channels to broadcast on, we have basically no defenses or fighters on standby. No need to make anyone panic prematurely. Let's see who's coming, then panic." His droll voice prompted a wave of tense laughter around the command deck, and he shoved his hands in his pockets, waiting patiently for the incoming ships to come out of warp.

They didn't have long to wait, the incoming ships coming out of warp a reasonable distance away, though their sheer bulk made them still visible to the naked eye from the station. Five large ships and one small one, reported one of the command deck's personnel, and the large ships were pressing into mothership territory in size. None of them were designs they'd seen before.

Pepper was starting to get worried about the radio silence when one of the aides lifted a hand to his headset and looked up. "Sir? Transmission from one of the ships. It's claiming to be the Great Fox sir."

He lifted an eyebrow. "Does it sound like McCloud?"

"Y-yes sir."

"Alright, tell him to prove it."

There was a pause as the private relayed this, listened, then looked up again. "Uh, sir? He said 'take that sucker out of your mouth and pay attention, old man.'"

Pepper burst into laughter, clapping his hands. "Stand down everyone, they're friendly. Get Fox on the heads-up, I'd love to know what the hell is going on." That said, he returned to his seat, adjusting the screen and grinning when Fox's familiar face appeared. The younger man was in uniform and had one eyebrow raised in a querulous manner. To Pepper's satisfaction, Fox was not nearly so thin-faced, and his eyes were bright again. "Fox, you have no idea how glad I am to see you're well."

"Good to see you too General."

"Now, which of those ships is yours? I don't see the Great Fox." Pepper said, bringing up a visual of the ships on another screen. "The smallest of the birds I assume?"

"I've been a very busy boy." Fox grinned sarcastically. "Yes, that'd be mine. Great Fox version 2.0."

"Lords almighty, that's sure to cause some noise over here. Who are your friends?"

"Well actually they might be your friends, and they have a present for you. Ambassador Nidar, are you listening in?"

There was a pause, then the Vun's friendly voice came on the channel. "Yes, yes I am Commander McCloud! Please, introduce me to your friend!"  
"Ambassador Nidar, this is Commanding General Pepper, he's in charge of the station usually. He's the main guy you'll want to talk with. General, this is Nidar, he's a Vun ambassador and he's on a personnel carrier over here, along with ambassadors from the Rinaldi and the fluffs. They'd like to start some discussions, and asked us to come along and vouch for them, which is what I'm doing now."

"Alright Fox, alright, come on in close to the station. Consider them vouched for." Pepper looked at the picture again. "So, what are those big carriers for?"

"Well, you remember how you couldn't spare us any water?"

Pepper froze, then looked back at Fox's image again. The young wing commander looked smug as hell. "What did you do?"

Fox smiled, and disconnected from the channel, leaving the General to talk it out with Nidar.

Fox folded his arms, looking around the half-circle of people standing in front of him. Everyone was in the docking bay, having been given orders to get into uniform and join him there. There were a few odd men out, Jesse had no flight suit so he was wearing the jacket over jeans and a t-shirt. Katt had no jacket, just a flight suit, and Shar'lai had no uniform, having just turned up anyway in spite of basically being a contractor. Still, he was fairly pleased with what he saw.

"Well, ladies and gentlemen, I think this is the first time in a long time we've looked reasonably like a military unit." He said by way of greeting. "I know we need work but we've got things to sort out first. We've got new equipment to familiarize ourselves with, and even for those who have been in arwings before, it's been a good long while. If we aren't rusty, I'll be stunned." Seeing nods in agreement, he continued. "So, the first order of business is simple. We're all going to get in our planes and fly them. I guess Slippy had our names put on them, so find your craft and get in. We're short a training field but I'm sure we can improvise. Let's do this."

The group scattered, going down the line of docking clamps and finding their planes. Fara lingered, as did Jesse and Shar'lai, looking awkward. "Fox, I want to fly but what about Hope?" She finally said, holding their daughter.

"I'm hoping on some good will, actually." Fox replied, looking at Jesse. "I know you're left out right now, we'll be doing drone drills later. Can you look after my kid while we do this?"

"I, uh. I can try." Jesse mustered a smile, accepting the little girl. "Shar'lai, want to help me while we watch these people fly?"

"Er, certainly." Shar'lai looked uncertain. "I like children, I used to take care of the younger members of my family."

"Alright." Fox nodded, then turned to Fara. "Shall we?" She smiled and nodded, and they walked to the line of planes, both climbing the ladders and swinging into the already opened cockpits.

"This might be interesting." Jesse said, looking at Shar'lai. "Want to go to the observation deck?"

"Yes, yes I do. I've heard a lot about this group. I would love to see them in action."

Fox pulled a good distance away from the Great Fox, tapping his headset mic and twisting to look behind himself. The racks turned people loose one at a time at reasonable speed, so the other arwings quickly fell into formation behind him, Faye and Miyu finding places in the formation without asking, quickly turning it into a nine-plane delta formation. "Alright, good so far. Welcome to your new planes everyone, how's it looking?"

"This is sweet." Falco said, barrel rolling the plane in place, feeling the new systems react. "Nicely done, Slippy."

"Thanks." Slippy said a bit sheepishly.

"Alright, let's see what we're looking at…" Fox looked at his readouts. The station was a good distance away, as were the rest of the cruisers. They were almost out of visual range of Alpha, so they had a lot of room to work with. "Ok, how to start this… Let's do some basic formation flying. Everyone on my lead?" A flow of affirmatives came back, and he nodded once, opening up the throttle of his arwing.

To his shock, he was thrown back in his seat by the sudden surge of speed. In spite of the g-diffuser system, Slippy had apparently not been lying about the expanded engine plants. He was sure he cussed in surprise, and by the sounds on the radio, everyone else was similarly caught off guard. He kept the throttle open anyway, cutting back and forth through empty space, glancing at his screens to make sure everyone else was keeping up. The surly bonds of the earth left long ago, he let himself test the mobility of the plane, trying to keep the moves reasonable so the formation could stick with him. Nine planes doing loops and u-turns in formation was reasonably impressive.

"Faye, Miyu, come back. Talk to me, any issues?" Fox said, easing back on the throttle slightly and flying straight, letting the other planes come in evenly behind him. "When did you last touch a plane?"

"No issues on my end, I haven't flown since the Academy." Miyu said. "When the evacuation started, we were both tasked for that."

"No issues here, and I flew a shuttle for the evacuation, carting supplies." Faye said timidly.

"But you haven't seen a fight craft since training?" Fox asked.

"No sir."

"Alright, well, I see a lot of drills in our future." Fox reoriented the formation. During the flying they'd moved closer to Alpha, and the huge bulk of the two colonization support vessels loomed. "That will do nicely. Now that we're warmed up, let's mix it up a little. Who's up for a game of tag?"

"Oh, hell, what are you planning?" Wolf asked. He was still getting used to being in an arwing, and was finding himself unable to miss his wolfen.

"Nothing complicated, it's just I want to see what I can do with this thing and this will make the rest of you work together. On my word, break formation. This is tag, and you're all it."

"You're serious?" Fara laughed. "Eight on one?"

"Dead serious. Game ends when someone gets a lock on me." Fox smiled a bit, putting a hand on the throttle control. "Everyone ready?"

"You are such a brat." Peppy said. "And I look forward to kicking your ass."

"No kidding. It's go time." Falco said.

"Well, you're all talking big, let's see if anyone can manage to pull it off!" Fox grinned. "Break formation." That said, he opened the throttle and yanked on the controls. The arwing responded, nose coming straight up and engines lighting up. He held the grin, sending the ship into a roll and listening to the burst of confusion he'd left behind, the delta formation breaking up and everyone chasing after him. Seeing that coming, he slammed on the brakes and rolled the plane again, watching everyone careen by him as he reoriented, opening the throttle and hammering on the boost.

Falco skidded his plane into a turn as he passed Fox, cussing, watching everyone else suffer similar fates. "Ok, we need a plan. Fox, we're dropping to a different radio channel to discuss your upcoming ass kicking."

"Cheers." Fox replied, flying straight, glancing at the screen. He saw everyone on his display change radio channels, forming back up in a group, not immediately following him. "I hope they don't let me grow old." He chuckled, dodging in between the large cruisers.

"Lylatian craft, this is Rinaldi ship SunCloak, please apprise us of your actions."

"This is Flight Commander McCloud, my pilots are conducting exercises. We'll be maneuvering in your airspace." Fox said, rolling the plane. The colonization ships were complicated vessels, lots of obstacles to fly around. Perfect. "We may get in close to you in the process."

"Understood, please do not use live fire against us."

"No weapons will be fired."

"Fox what in the hell is going on?"

Fox rubbed his eyes, checking one of his readouts for station time. "General, go back to bed. Kiss your wife for me."

"Well piss on you too, Junior. Have fun."

Now sorely tempted to turn off the radio, Fox slowed his plane down, cutting in closer to one of the Rinaldi ships, watching his radar. His teammates had apparently elected a leader and had moved out, breaking into two formations of four and charging for the pair of Rinaldi ships like bats out of hell. "Finally. I wonder how they're going to coordinate this?" Knowing full well the dark arwing stood out against the pale golden hull of the much larger ship, he reopened the throttle, dodging around the topography of the ship.

"Ok, guys, this may be eight on one but he is not going to just roll over and let us win." Falco said, staying a distance out from the carrier, watching Fox zip along. If he was eyeballing it right, his wing commander was less than two feet off the surface of the larger ship. "Showoff. I've played this game with him before, and that was years ago, before he had a war's worth of experience under his belt."

"We should have the advantage." Miyu protested.

"Yeah, for running into each other." Peppy replied. "He did this on purpose. He's made us friendly fire hazards to each other, and he's in so close to the Rinaldi ships that we're going to have to be on point to not limp back in damaged craft."

"He's made himself the shooting gallery target." Fara said. "Smart, really."

"The hero and the guards." Wolf said. "If we hit him one on one, he's going to be able to ditch us. We need to trap him."

"Well, we're open to ideas." Slippy said. "Anyone else having fun yet?"

"More than I should be." Katt replied. "Let's get him."

Fox meanwhile was sticking close to the Rinaldi ship, listening to radio chatter on the other channels. He was being nice enough not to eavesdrop on his wingmates, but listening to station and cruiser chatter was on fire. The Rinaldi ships were complaining about how close he and his wingmates were, the station was excited but a bit confused, the other cruisers (Lylatian and otherwise) were reorienting and moving to see what was going on. And in the background, the Great Fox pulling in closer so the two crew members left on board to see what was going on. Fox chuckled, watching on his headsup as his crew reoriented and split up into pairs, scattering away from each other. "Well, well, well, that's interesting… what are you guys up to?" His instincts said to turn, and he didn't question it, throwing his ship into high-speed u-turn and doubling back the way he came, leaving the ship's topside and going back between the cruisers.

The proximity of the huge cruisers made conventional radar useless, so he abandoned using it, relying on his headsup display and line of sight. Skimming close to the surface of the ship, he was well aware he was highly visible, looking up between the ships and seeing two arwings bearing down on him. The glare from the gold hulls of the Rinaldi ships making it impossible for him to tell who was behind the stick. Unable to dive, he glanced from side to side and saw that he was being closed in on from the front as well, from two angles, the other two pairs not flying as close as he was. Not wanting to know who was behind him, he slammed on the brakes and banked sharply, turning the arwing on one of its wings and slamming the boost, shooting between two of his copilots. His flight computer chirped briefly then stopped, lock attempts had been made and hadn't succeeded.

Knowing without looking that the other two were nearly on top of him by now, he doubled back again and had to slam the brakes, yanking the nose up and hearing engine warnings go off as he attempted not to collide with Falco. Falco cussed furiously and also slammed the brakes, breaking off and splitting briefly from Katt, whose lock on attempt failed miserably as Fox did a slow barrel roll, going from one side of her to the other then dodging away again. Leaving their plan in a disarray, the pairs forming up again, he tore away from them, evading as much as he could, still not certain where the last two pilots were.

The radio chatter picked up again. Vun voices, in their own language but it sounded oddly like stadium cheers. Rinaldi voices, still ardently not happy about their ships being used as an obstacle course. Lylatian radio chatter, and he recognized the voice of General Pepper, telling everyone to calm the hell down, it's just flight exercises. Then he didn't have time to listen, because one of the sets of his copilots had popped out from around part of the ship and were diving on him at full speed. Not liking where this was heading, he drug the nose of the ship up again, going into a slow loop, the diving ships pulling up sharply and ending up passing under him just as he finished the loop, ending up right behind him. Following impulse he stuck to them, and grinned when both hit the brakes and broke to different sides. He did another u-turn, watching on his readouts, counting planes as he pulled away from the furball, following the contours of the ship to its belly, cussing when he realized there were still two arwings he couldn't account for.

One thing at a time. Seeing two arwings charging him headon, he broke off at a forty-five degree angle, dodging around parts of the ship, and felt the fur along the back of his neck come on end. They were coordinating this. He was being herded. He cussed, breaking away from the ship and pushing into empty space between the cruisers, moving toward the other one. He had just enough time to react when the other two arwings swooped out from under the cruiser, breaking off without thinking about it, turning his head back and forth, trying to count planes. The other six swooped down on top of him, and he doubled back the way he'd came, dodging between the two planes who'd just tried to ambush him. His flight computer complained again as one of the two planes dodged to the side as he plowed by, but the other…

Then his computer was alarming, and he stared at the flashing code, in an appropriate shade of "do something right now" red. He smiled and shook his head, easing back on the throttle, changing his radio channel to the one his teammates were on. "Game over, I'm locked on." He announced, to laughter and cussing, looking querulously at his displays. "Who got that?"

"Uh, I did, sir." Faye said, sounding sheepish, telling the fighter's computer to dismiss the lock-on.

"You did?" Fox lifted an eyebrow. "Well, that's a surprise. Nicely done."

"No kidding? You did?" Another arwing flew up and fell in next to Faye's, Falco's voice sounding incredulous.

"Apparently so. I figured it'd be you or Wolf who'd do so, honestly." Fox replied. "You two being the most familiar with my flight skills. Everyone have fun?"

"Yeah, though I get the idea this was mostly so you could have some fun, babe." Fara said.

Fox snorted. "Well, the rest of you are warmed up, I wanted a chance to do so myself."

"You overgrown arrogant brat!" Peppy laughed.

"Right, right." He flew between the cruisers idly, watching everyone form up on him somewhat automatically. "Well, since we have an audience, what say we do some more actual drilling before going back to the barn for today?" Getting a flow of affirmatives, he pulled the ship up, leaving the immediate airspace of the Rinaldi ships, if for no other reason then he was sure they were tired of the close proximity.

"Alright, I honestly haven't had time to look at these controls so let's take this slowly ok?" Fara said, sitting down in her chair at drone control, watching the displays power on. Jesse was already sitting at his spot, Shar'lai standing next to them. Fox stood behind them by a few feet so he could watch both of their screens, holding Hope, who was gnawing on a roll Wolf had given her. Hope barely had any teeth in but seemed determined to make the most of them, already seeming disinterested in nursing. Fara was fine with that, and had slapped Fox upside the head when he suggested he'd happily pick up the slack. Fox had just laughed.

"Fine by me. I haven't really looked at them either, besides the design side. I was the one that made the call for VR controls." Jesse was saying, pulling on the VR glasses, then the gloves. "It seemed like the only way for us to easily control these things, since we're not used to it."

"Hive masters among my people use mind jacks." Said Shar'lai, watching the two prepare. "Most do, at least. It takes a particular kind of mind to be able to coordinate many different view points."

"Mind jacks?" Fara asked, putting on the VR gear and blinking as the displays came up in front of her eyes. "The drones are coming online. Oh, oh this is weird."

"Rinaldi cyborgs." Jesse said, listening to the hiss-crackle of drones coming through the headphones. "And you're right, this is weird. How do you want to do this?"

"Well, we have two hundred of these things right, three different designations?" Fara said, twitching a finger to move the displays she was being shown about, separating the drones out by designation. "Repair, defense, and attack. What do you figure will get used the most?"

"If we're lucky? Attack." Fox said dryly.

"By the numbers, we have 130 attack drones, 40 defense drones, and 30 repair." Jesse said. "Alright, what say we launch some of the attack drones, say thirty, and split control of them, just to get used to how they move."

"Alright, I'll launch them."

Fox turned an ear, hearing some informative bleeps going off in other parts of the control deck, then looked toward the view glass. Barely visible to the eye even at close range, a cluster of drones was gathering in front of the ship, and as he was watching split into two parties. "So, are you a hive master?" He asked, looking at Shar'lai.

"You're asking, do I have a mind jack?" Shar'lai sounded amused, closing both eyes on the right side of her head. "Yes, if there's a problem I may use it, but I am honestly not too worried about it." She reopened the eyes, looking at Hope, who was holding the roll with both hands, growling at it as she gnawed. "May I ask you a few questions? I am not very familiar with the culture of your people."

"Sure." Fox's eyes were back on the drone control screens, which weren't really being used for control. The drones were changing formations; he saw them go through delta, claw, and sphere as he watched.

"Your people have only two sexes, two genders?"

"Yes, though there are biological errors along the way." Fox looked at her curiously.

"No, what I mean is, only one side of the equation sires children, and only the other side can bear them." Shar'lai had the look of someone trying to do checkbook math in her head.

"Yes, basically."

"Well, that's straightforward." The Rinaldi let out a nervous laugh. "What about honorifics? I hear a lot of 'sir'…"

"Eh, technically that's only used on guys, but around here it could be used on either gender. It's a military thing." He shrugged. "I barely know anything about your people, beyond the fact that you apparently have six sexes. I can't imagine trying to keep track of that."

"Definitions differ, but technically we have two genders and six sexes." Seeing Fox's expression blank, she hastily continued. "Perhaps I should explain that better?"

"Yes, because… wow. Yeah."

Shar'lai paused, settling into a more comfortable position and checking the screens. The drones were going through basic motions, Fara and Jesse commenting short asides to each other as they figured out the controls. As far as Fox could tell from the comments, the drones could turn on a dime and give nine cents change. "It's actually the product of gene modding a few generations ago."

"So it's recent?" Fox lifted his eyebrows.

The Rinaldi did some mental math. "About fifteen hundred of your years."

"Oh. So, not recent…. Wait…"

"It'll make sense as I go along. The Rinaldi now are the mix of several strains from homeworld. Theory is, we all started as one strain but at some point we split up." She resituated, laying on her stomach with her feet tucked in, lower set of hands resting on the ground, upper set on top of the lower. "As you've probably been told, my people live a long time and we do not reproduce very fast. It was decided that coming back to one strain would make us stronger, but we'd been apart long enough that doing so was difficult. It resulted in… problems. Many didn't like it. We actually had a number of years where the amount of children dropped off, but the doctors eventually worked it out. We're used to it now, and identify the differences with an honorific. It's part of introduction for us."

Fox scratched the back of his head, trying to figure out what would happen if Lylat woke up and discovered it had six sexes instead of the usual two. Panic, horror, and lots of partying, he wagered. "Alright, so pardon me for asking but how the hell does it work? Seems like there would be compatibility issues."

"My people have those that can sire children, those that can bear children, and those that can do both. Before you ask, there are two variations on each. Think of it as equipment brand differences. Males, females, and neutrals. I'm a zet-female, I can only bear children. The other indicator is 'nem.' They're actually indicators of past ancestry, even though we're colonizing now and it doesn't matter as much."

"Dear gods, that's complicated." He shook his head in wonder.

"You haven't even heard how our family structure works."

He blinked slowly. "Do I want to know?"

Shar'lai laughed, clasping her top set of hands together, tail flicking in amusement. "Actually it isn't too far off from what you've got in your life, Commander."

"What?" Fox asked, totally confused, juggling Hope to his other arm. Hope bapped him with the roll, he shook a finger at her only to have that bapped as well. "It's just Fara and I…"

"Except it isn't. Technically this ship is one mixed family clan, with one breeding pair formed, another formed but not active, and I'm not sure what else. I think you also have what my people would call a, a providing pair. A pair that can't form a breeding pair, but can support a breeding pair."

"And thank the gods for that." Jesse said over his shoulder.

"My people don't trace lineage like yours do. Our stance is, is it a healthy child, and is the bearing parent supported? If both those variables are satisfied, then so is society. To that end, we have large family clans communally raising offspring."

"So, how do last names work then?"

"The family clan has a last name. I'm Shar'lai Esri-Aten. If I were to join another family clan, my last name would change, and my joining might change the last name."

Fox scratched his head. "You are very on top of how things work around here."

Shar'lai giggled. "Drek the society observer gave me a very short brief about your crew before I came on board. None of it was useful since I didn't know how to use the information, but I did listen."

"Well, that's cheating." Fox half-smiled, then jumped when the Great Fox's proximity alarms went off.

"Sorry!" Fara said, sending her drones spinning back off into space. Shar'lai hefted herself up and peered over their shoulders, Fox moved to sit in his command chair, Hope sitting on one of his legs, watching the team's newest ET discuss systems with his friends and feeling oddly content about it.

"Alright, how are we going to do this?" Wolf asked, watching Fox stand up from his command chair, taking off his hat and scratching one of his ears. "I mean, I'm flattered as hell you made me Helm Command, but I've only ever been Wing Command."

"Which is one of the reasons you get this job. You've been where I am, you understand my needs on the battlefield, and what I'll need in terms of cover from this ship." Fox replied, shrugging into his jacket and putting gloves on. "You get my chair, and your main job is to coordinate between myself, drone command, and ROB, who will be handling the Great Fox's movements and cannons."

"So technically, which one of us has command over the other in battle?"

Fox looked at him and lifted an eyebrow. "You have command, but I have the right to tell you respectfully to stuff it if I feel the need."

That made him smile, shoving his hat back on. "Fair enough. I imagine you'd prefer I keep this ship out of harm's way."

"If at all possible. Dreadnought or not, she's a carrier first in my mind, and only put her into combat if you feel it's absolutely necessary. I'd prefer you support from a distance if possible."

"Understood. Let's do this."

Fox punched Wolf's shoulder and left the bridge, leaving him to sit down in the command chair and reorient the controls, changing the displays around until he was satisfied with how they were arranged. He caught his reflection in one of the displays, and almost laughed. Silver coat, headset, command hat. If only Leon could see him now. "You online, Fox?"

"Yeah, we're buttoned up down here." Fox said, flipping toggle switches, starting his arwing. "On your word."

"You are go for launch." He smiled a bit, eyes flicking between displays, watching the alerts came up as seven arwings launched, then flipping between external displays, heads-up, and radar to watch their positions. "Alright, all we need is something to target…"

"Dude, I got you covered." Bill's voice broke cheerfully onto the radio channel, and the wing commander came onto the radar with a small group of his pilots. "I got permission from the General to come join you in your exercises."

"Dude yourself! How'd you manage that?" Fox asked, flying out to meet him, the two planes circling each other.

"It's just training." Bill replied innocently.

"Hah! Right. Ok. Well, we're working on coordination. You guys willing to be the bad guys for us?"

"Hell, that'll be a nice change! Let us form back up and back off for another approach."

"You got it." Fox smiled fondly, watching Husky squadron rally and back off. "You copy that Wolf?"

"Yeah I copy. I can't exactly fake the weapons on this bird, you know." Wolf shook his head, looking at the Great Fox's weaponry. "This thing would fricassee fighters with its main cannons."

"Good point, guess that's going to have to wait for a live test."

"Bollocks." Suggested Bill. "Pinpoint drills on asteroids."

"Asteroids don't generally fight back." Wolf pointed out. "Ok, game suggestion if you're willing to hear it?"

"Go ahead." Fox said.

"An enemy is a start but we also need a motivation. Bill, since you're being our bad guy, how about you assault the station?"

"Hah! Well, I'd have a bunch more guys if I was trying that for real but for purposes of this, that works." Bill sounded far too entertained with the prospect.

"I approve, Wolf." Fox said.

"Alright, Fox, you guys stay in our pocket, I'm moving the ship." Wolf looked at ROB. "Move us back to the station, then swing us around so we're between the station and Bill. Give us some room to maneuver, and toss a heads-up at the other cruisers."

"Understood." The robot replied, the Great Fox responding ably to his move orders.

"Jesse, Fara?" Wolf looked toward the drone stations, where both were in gear and waiting. "Standby, ok?"

"Yes sir." Jesse smirked, turning back to his station, adjusting his gloves. "50/50 split on drones, Fara?"

"Sounds right. You want to defend if necessary?" Fara glanced at him. Hope was sitting on a blanket next to her chair, absolutely fascinated with a ball of flickery lights. Andross had given it to Fara with the cheerful comment that it would keep Hope entertained. All Fara knew was that the lights flickered on when the ball was moved, and if you tossed it up and down, it sang in a synthetic voice. She wasn't sure if she was thankful or irritated.

"Yes, you're the pilot here. If that happens, I'll give my drones to you and launch the defenders."

"Sounds good."

"Fox, we're good to go here." Wolf said, checking displays.

"Right. Anytime you're ready Bill."

"You got it. Changing radio channels so I can talk to my guys. This should be fun."

Fox sighed, putting his hands on his hips and surveying the arwings that were docked. Yeah, a few were banged up now, but no serious damage. At the very least, he could relax: the shiny new paint officially had some dings. "Well, that didn't go quite as planned."

"Bah, it was great." Bill said. His squadron had flown back, but he had docked, his ship the only one not on a docking clamp. "Not perfect, but for the first time doing that sort of drill, damn good. What the hell were those little flying bastards?"

"Drone fighters, I guess Wolf let Jesse and Fara cut them loose so they could practice orienting on fighter-sized targets."

" One of them was sitting on my windshield. I think it was menacing me with a laser cutter."

"Yeah, I've been told they're 'insidious.'" Fox airquoted to go along with that word. "We'll see once they get into real combat. Thanks for the practice man."

"No worries at all. How long you hanging out around here?"

"Not sure honestly, there's nothing wrong with drilling more but I'm starting to feel like I'm treading water." He sighed and scratched his chin.

"Bah. From what I've seen, you haven't been doing anything close." Bill shoved his hands in his pockets, snorting in amusement.

Fara came into the bay, carrying two mugs and smiling. "Billy! How are you doing?"

"Hey beautiful." Bill grinned at her in spite of himself. Part of him still found it hilarious that Fox had tied the knot, the rest found it appropriate. "I'm good, though I tell you, there has been not a lot going on. You guys coming back was like the circus coming to town."

"Ugh, that would make General Pepper the Ringmaster." Fox shook his head, accepting a mug and taking a glad drink, already used to the cider taste of Vun tea.

"Coffee?" Bill asked curiously as he was handed a mug.

"Next best thing until the hydroponics work, my man."

"Well, all that water your friends gave the station will certainly help with that."

Fox's name was hollered in the corridor, then Wolf showed up in the doorway, leaning on it. "You're wanted on the bridge, Fox."

"What? Is it the General? You could have taken it." Fox lifted his eyebrows, taking another drink.

"No, it's from a hell of a long way away, and it's a work contract."

Fox looked at him for a moment, then nodded. "Well, then, I shouldn't keep them waiting." He turned back to Bill. "Guess our bullshit session has to be cut short this time."

"Yeah, such is life." Bill knocked back the drink and handed Fara back the mug. "I'll get out of your hair. Good luck, man."

"Thanks, we'll probably need it." Still holding his mug, he offered his other hand to Fara and walked back to where Wolf was standing, who stepped out of the way and let them pass, then followed along. The news traveled quickly though the ship, and by the time Fox was back on the bridge, most of the crew had joined them, taking seats off to the side to find out what was going on. Fox sat down at his station and set the mug aside, noticed the call on hold, and pressed the 'answer' button on the screen. "This is Commander McCloud, may I ask who's calling?"

"Commander McCloud, you aren't an easy man to get ahold of. No one seems to know the radio channel at which to reach you." Replied the easily recognizable voice of a Bylar, the heads-up appearing. The Bylar's skin was sea green, wearing what appeared to be a hooded robe. "But I'm glad I did. We've heard some interesting rumblings the last few days, and we feel you may be able to help us."

"Anything's possible, depends what you need assistance with." Fox replied. "And how much you're paying for said assistance."

The Bylar wove a hand vaguely. "Yes, we know you're mercenaries, and we're willing to pay. The job is escorting a convoy of ships."

"Protecting against whom?"

"Anyone that would harm them."

"Fair enough. Do you have specifics for us? If you can send a file along, I can review it and decide if we can help you."

"I do hope so, Commander, I think you may be the only ones that can." The Bylar replied somberly. "Would you be willing to come to one of our core worlds to discuss it further?"

"One moment." Fox put the call back on hold and looked at everyone else. "Any protests?"

"I can't think of a reason why the Bylar would be anything but honest with us." Jesse said. "And their core worlds are far from dangerous places in the galaxy."

"Work is work, I say we do it." Falco said. This got a chorus of nods from the others.

"Alright then." Fox took the call off hold. "Give me the coordinates and we'll get underway, though I would like a file to review while traveling."

"Done and done."

"Well, I'd say you've officially earned your keep." Fox said, watching Shar'lai's hands fly over the keyboard, her upper set of hands typing slightly awkwardly on the Lylatian keyboard, one of the lower ones managing the mouse. The lack of a pinky finger (the Rinaldi had three finger and thumb) generally meant that she was at a slight disadvantage when working with Lylatian equipment, but she was quickly adapting.

"Nonsense, I haven't yet done what I'm here to do." She protested, watching the galaxy bank site react to what she was doing. "Alright, looks like they've got it set up, but it'll be a day probably before it's really usable."

"Thanks. After all, money's no use unless we have somewhere to put it." He pondered the site, with the 00.000 balance showing. "And you're sure this can't be used against us?"

"StarEdge Banks is a neutral firm that's backed by basically every race. When the bank originally formed, the head of the company said they would allow no race to sabotage another through their systems." She shrugged. "I'm not saying it's impossible, but this is probably the safest bank."

"The galaxy equivalent of an account in the Caymans." Falco observed. "That is, when the Caymans still existed."

"Have you given any more thought to the Freelancer network?" Shar'lai asked, leaving the bank site for the Freelancer one. Viewing the galaxy's network on a 2d screen when it was meant for holographic touch-projection was just weird, but the system was adapting and so was she.

"Might as well, considering work's finding us without it. Make it easier on employers if anything." Fox looked at Falco. "Think you could handle this?"

"Sure, I got it."

"Good to know." Fox retreated to his chair, sitting down and looking at one of his screens, which displayed the brief the Bylar had sent him. The Great Fox was in warp, heading toward the coordinates of a Bylar core world. "If I'm reading this right, this is very odd."

"What's the short version?" Wolf asked, coming back onto the bridge with a coffee cup in one hand and Hope in the other. He was carrying her by the back of her jumper, and she was laughing and pawing at his leg. Seeing Fox's look, he put her down carefully.

"Looks like a series of escort missions, or maybe one mission of escorting a convoy." Fox sat back, rubbing his chin. "As to what we'll be escorting and to where, looks like big personnel carriers, to fringe worlds."

"Colonization attempt?"

"Not sure." Fox watched Hope curiously. She was standing on the metal floor of the bridge, holding on to one of Wolf's pants legs to steady herself, seriously studying the gap between Wolf's legs and Fox's command chair, which totaled about two feet. Fox offered a hand, which Hope said "Nuh" to and continued pondering the great divide.

"Was that a 'no'?" Falco looked over his shoulder.

"Possibly, yes and no are on the list of words Fara and I are trying to teach her. So far bread gets a 'yis' and forks get a vehement 'nuh'." Fox sat back again. Wolf, for his part, was standing still to allow her to negotiate this on her own. "I'm not sure what she has against forks."

"She's not even a year old, should she be able to make that leap of cognition?" Falco turned the chair to watch this curiously.

"According to ROB, no, not that that's stopping her."

There was a long silence as Hope let go of Wolf's pants legs, took four steps, grabbed Fox's command seat, and started walking in circles around it. Fox grinned, stroking her hair as she went by, turning back to his screen. "I think we're going to have to wait until we get there to get details. There's a note at the bottom saying they're afraid to transmit any more information about the job."

"Afraid of what?" Wolf wanted to know, leaning on the back of Fox's chair and reading the note.

"I don't know, but I don't like it." Fox shook his head, picking up Hope and setting her on his knee, where she swatted the screen, activating two displays and bringing up an internal camera of the drone bays before ROB locked the screen out. "But hey, it's work. It's a good start."

"I'll drink to that." Falco grinned and turned back to the site Shar'lai was working on.


End file.
